NASA Is Reviving the VIPER Lunar Rover
Credit: Blue Origin
On September 19, NASA announced a contract with Blue Origin worth up to $190 million to deliver the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) to the lunar south pole. Delivery is scheduled for late 2027 as part of the Commercial Lunar Cargo Services (CLPS) program. Blue Origin will deliver the rover using the Blue Moon Mark 1 (MK1) lander, currently in production.
Problems with delivering the VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) lunar rover to the lunar south pole arose due to the inability of Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic to build the Griffin lunar lander, which NASA had already paid for, even though the rover itself was fully assembled, tested, and ready for flight.
NASA’s budget overruns forced the agency to announce in the summer of 2024 that it was terminating its support for the VIPER mission. To recoup the $450 million spent on the project, NASA offered to purchase the rover in its entirety or in parts (for disassembly into instruments). The resulting outcry in the scientific community reached the US Senate, and NASA eventually began publicly seeking bidders to complete the project.
As recently announced, Blue Origin has backed the project. It has signed a contract with the agency to deliver the rover to the Moon on its future Mark 1 lunar module. The module’s first flight is expected before the end of this year.
VIPER’s scientific goals remain unchanged: to search for volatiles such as water ice, a resource critical to astronaut survival and rocket fuel production.
