VIPER is now targeting a launch in November of 2024<\/q><\/aside>\n<\/div>\nTo get VIPER to the Moon, NASA is contracting with a commercial company called Astrobotic through the space agency’s CLPS program \u2014 an initiative to galvanize private companies into building commercial lunar landing platforms. Astrobotic, which is working on a fleet of robotic lunar landers, plans to use its future Griffin lander to carry VIPER to the Moon’s surface. But today, NASA announced that it had requested additional testing of the Griffin lander, pushing the projected launch date back to late 2024. <\/strong>With the change, NASA is giving Astrobotic an additional $67.8 million, bringing the total value of the company’s contract for the VIPER mission to $320.4 million.<\/p>\nThough the rover is delayed, NASA plans to fly versions of VIPER’s instruments on two upcoming commercial landers headed toward the Moon later this year. The two landers include one being developed by Houston-based company Intuitive Machines, as well as another smaller lander called Peregrine being developed by Astrobotic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NASA is delaying the flight of its VIPER rover \u2014 a specialized bot designed to hunt for water on the surface of the Moon. Originally set to embark on its lunar expedition in November of 2023, VIPER is now targeting a launch in November of 2024 in order to allow for testing of the lander …<\/p>\n
NASA delays launch of rover designed to search and drill for water on the Moon<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":19870,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/nasa-delays-viper-lunar-rover-launch-by-a-year\/","url_meta":{"origin":19104,"position":0},"title":"NASA delays VIPER lunar rover launch by a year","date":"July 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"WASHINGTON \u2014 NASA has delayed the launch of an ice-prospecting lunar rover by a year to perform more testing of its commercial lander, the agency announced July 18. NASA said it is delaying the launch of its Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) mission from November 2023 to November 2024.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/1izOqnvBjCYtn4_olzPqHdD0bj4=\/0x75:3840x2085\/fit-in\/1200x630\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/23885140\/viper_cdr_hero_08_lrg_1.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19104"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19104\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}