NASA defers VIPER’s delivery to the Moon’s South Pole to November 2024

NASA has rescheduled the delivery of the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) to the Moon's South Pole to November 2024, the agency said on Monday.

VIPER was originally scheduled for lunar delivery by Astrobotic of Pittsburgh in November 2023, but, NASA has requested the company for additional ground testing of the company's Griffin lunar lander, which will deliver VIPER to the lunar surface through the agency's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.

"Through CLPS, NASA has tasked U.S. companies to perform a very challenging technological feat – to successfully land and operate on the Moon. VIPER is NASA's largest and most sophisticated science payload to be delivered to the Moon through CLPS, and we've implemented enhanced lander testing for this particular CLPS surface delivery," said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

In a press release on Monday, NASA said that an additional $67.8 million has been added to Astrobotic's CLPS contract (now totals $320.4 million) to complete the additional NASA-mandated tests of the Griffin lunar lander.

To allow for additional testing of the lunar lander that will deliver our VIPER rover to the lunar South Pole, its arrival to the Moon is now scheduled for 2024. More details: https://t.co/yvIWPCrv9s pic.twitter.com/rd3Ufk7S3o

— NASA Ames (@NASAAmes) July 18, 2022

For the unversed, VIPER is a mobile robot that will land at the South Pole of the Moon to get a close-up view of the location and concentration of water ice on the Moon. The measurements returned by the rover will provide insight into the origin and distribution of water on the Moon and help determine how the Moon's resources could be harvested for future human space exploration.