Astrolab Archives - Eastern Range

October 24, 2025

Falcon Heavy Launch of Astrobotic’s Griffin-1 slips to NET July 2026

Astrobotic has announced that its Griffin-1 lunar mission is now targeting July 2026, a shift that gives engineers time to complete propulsion integration and qualify the lander’s engines. Their update, published today, also outlines steady progress on systems from tanks to software as the company prepares to deliver multiple payloads to the Moon’s south-polar Nobile region.

With this news, any chance of a Falcon Heavy launch from Kennedy Space Center in 2025 is now kaput.

Status

Astrobotic said that Griffin-1’s structural build is “nearing full integration,” with pressure tanks, ramps, attitude-control thrusters and solar arrays completing fit checks. The company says each completed milestone narrows the gap to launch and the attempted precision landing at Nobile.

The stakes are significant for the Pittsburgh-based firm after Peregrine Mission One failed to reach the Moon last year due to a propellant leak and later burned up on reentry, an outcome that the company says sharpened their focus on ground testing and flight-like rehearsals ahead of Griffin-1.

Today’s schedule update marks the clearest timing guide since mid-2025, when NASA’s CLPS page last summarized the mission.

Astrobotic also reports its flight avionics are assembled and accepted for flight, and a “closed-loop” landing rehearsal is running on the ground. Using the company’s LunaRay software to generate real-time images and 3D point-clouds of the terrain, the testbed feeds data into Griffin’s Terrain Relative Navigation and Hazard Detection & Avoidance algorithms—critical for an autonomous touchdown in a place where GPS doesn’t exist.

About Griffin-1

Griffin-1 is Astrobotic’s follow-on to the failed Peregrine demo and is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) line of deliveries supporting Artemis-era science at the south pole. NASA previously confirmed that after the VIPER rover was canceled in 2024, the Griffin task order would continue as a lander and engine flight demonstration on a reconfigured manifest—an approach that today’s update effectively advances toward with engine qualification now underway.

The lander’s propulsion system is built around four composite-overwrapped propellant tanks, designed to stay lightweight while holding high-pressure loads. With the tank installs and remaining harness work finished, Griffin will move into environmental acceptance tests—vibration, thermal vacuum and other checks—to certify the vehicle for launch and lunar operations.

The payload manifest remains anchored by Venturi Astrolab’s FLIP (FLEX Lunar Innovation Platform) rover, which is deep into thermal-vac and integrated functional tests; Astrobotic’s own CubeRover; and BEACON rover (the Benchmark for Engineering and Autonomous Capabilities in Operations and Navigation — a joint lunar surface demonstration from Mission Control and Astrobotic), which has already completed end-to-end “flatsat” simulations with the lander. Secondary cargo now in house includes a Nippon Travel Agency plaque carrying messages from Japanese schoolchildren, a Nanofiche “Galactic Library to Preserve Humanity,” and a sealed MoonBox capsule with items from around the world.

Merritt Island-based Interstellar Lab Plans To Grow Roses On The Moon

Interstellar Lab, a French company with facilities on Merritt Island, has joined forces with the Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Youth Foundation to grow roses on the moon. Mission Little Prince is planning to launch in 2027, and will land on the lunar surface aboard Astrolab’s FLEX rover.

Interstellar said in a press release from earlier in the year that, “This collaboration with the Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Youth Foundation brings an artistic and educational dimension to this mission, stimulating young people’s imagination and promoting the values of curiosity, open-mindedness and environmental preservation.”

“Since its first publication in France in 1946, The Little Prince has become a universal phenomenon, carrying Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s humanist message that transcends cultural and temporal barriers, weaving deep bonds between generations and cultures the world over.”

What or Who Is The Little Prince?

The Little Prince is a novella written and illustrated by French writer and military pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It has sold an estimated 140 million copies worldwide and been translated into over 500 languages. In it, a young prince visits various planets, including Earth, and addresses themes of loneliness, friendship, love, and loss.

While it is ostensibly written as children’s book, The Little Prince makes observations about life, adults, and human nature. Many literary scholars consider the slim volume to be one of the 100 best pieces of literature written in the 20th century — no small feat in a time period where writers like Hemmingway, Fitzgerald, Nabokov, James Joyce and too many others to name made their mark on Western culture.

While it is only briefly mentioned in the story, a rose teaches The Little Prince about love – for which, there can be no better symbol. Hence, the idea of roses on the moon.

Practical Applications

Romantic symbolism aside, the are sound technical reasons for Interstellar to take on the experiment. The company states its mission is to “preserve life on Earth and expand it into space.” They add that they are “working to grow plants and foodstuffs in space,” and states their mission is to “preserve biodiversity on Earth and help it become multi-planetary.” To that end, Interstellar is a finalist in NASA’s “Deep Space Food Challenge” where they have created a modular bioregenerative system for producing fresh microgreens, vegetables, mushrooms, and insects. Growing roses in conditions as harsh as the moon will prove to be a great testing ground for the company’s technologies and capabilities.

Food is a major focus in NASA and other agencies planning for long-term space missions, and experiments to that end are being conducted on the International Space Station today.

NASA Selects Three Companies To Continue In Lunar Terrain Vehicle Competition

Artist conception of a lunar rover in action.
Graphic: NASA

NASA has selected Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, and Astrolab to design a Lunar Terrain Vehicle, the agency announced earlier today in a press conference held in Houston. Each company named today will begin with a feasibility task order, which will be a year-long special study to develop their system to meet NASA’s requirements through the preliminary design maturity project.

Afterward one or more qualifying companies will be chosen to complete a demonstration mission, where it/they will continue developing the LTV, deliver it to the surface of the Moon, and validate its performance and safety prior to Artemis V, the first mission planned to take advantage of the LTV. While they left the door open today for more than one, NASA stated in a press release today that they anticipate making an award to only one provider for the demonstration.

Artemis V is currently planned for no earlier than 2029.

Intuitive Machines Reaction

“This procurement strategically aligns with the Company’s flight-proven capability to deliver payloads to the surface of the Moon under the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, further solidifying our position as a proven commercial contractor in lunar exploration,” said Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus in a press release issued by the company today. “Our global team is on a path to provide essential lunar infrastructure services to NASA in a project that would allow the Company to retain ownership of the vehicle for commercial utilization during periods of non-NASA activity over approximately ten years of lunar surface activity.”

Astrolab Reaction

“Astrolab is honored to have its FLEX rover selected by NASA to participate in the development of creating a Lunar Terrain Vehicle for the Artemis Campaign,” said Jaret Matthews, founder & CEO, Astrolab in a press release issued today. “Our entire team, together with our business partners, are committed to delivering to NASA an LTV that serves as a critical tool in the agency’s efforts to establish a long-term human presence on the Moon.”

“We’re excited to work with Astrolab and the entire team to revolutionize lunar operations,” said Russell Ralston, Vice President of EVA, Axiom Space. “We look forward to offering our expertise in the design of vehicle interfaces for both the crew and spacesuits, ensuring astronaut safety and mobility on the surface of the Moon. This partnership showcases a collective commitment to pushing boundaries and driving advancements in space exploration.”

Lunar Outpost Reaction

Lunar Outpost will work with Lockheed Martin, General Motors, Goodyear and MDA Space to develop their LTV.

“Surface mobility is a critical capability for humanity’s future in space, and Lunar Outpost looks forward to driving value in the cislunar economy by providing a reliable, safe and capable vehicle that will be used to provide mobility to Artemis astronauts and perform critical missions autonomously on the Moon for commercial endeavors,” said Lunar Outpost CEO, Justin Cyrus. “We look forward to leveraging the strengths of Lockheed Martin, a company with extensive human and advanced space systems experience, and our other industry teammates, GM, Goodyear and MDA Space, to provide an unparalleled technical offering at a commercially viable price point.”

NASA Statement

“We look forward to the development of the Artemis generation lunar exploration vehicle to help us advance what we learn at the Moon,” said Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “This vehicle will greatly increase our astronauts’ ability to explore and conduct science on the lunar surface while also serving as a science platform between crewed missions.”

All Purpose Vehicle

Besides enduring the extreme lunar conditions of the Moon’s South Pole region, the new rover requirements include advanced power management, autonomous driving, communications and navigation systems. When crews are not actively using the rovers on their missions on the lunar surface, NASA also expects to be able to use the rovers remotely to “support NASA’s scientific objectives as needed.” NASA added that “Outside those times, the provider will have the ability to use their LTV for commercial lunar surface activities unrelated to NASA missions.”

“We will use the LTV to travel to locations we might not otherwise be able to reach on foot, increasing our ability to explore and make new scientific discoveries,” said Jacob Bleacher, chief exploration scientist in the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “With the Artemis crewed missions, and during remote operations when there is not a crew on the surface, we are enabling science and discovery on the Moon year around.”