Astrobotic

GRIFFIN-1, undated photo from Astrobotic
GRIFFIN-1, undated photo from Astrobotic

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.

Above: Astrobotic staff examine a propulsion tank sitting in front of Griffin-1’s structure. Photo: Astrobotic
Above: Astrobotic staff examine a propulsion tank sitting in front of Griffin-1’s structure.
Photo: Astrobotic
The Nobile Crater region of the lunar south pole. Visualization: NASA

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.

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Rendering of the VIPER rover.
Graphic: NASA

NASA announced today that it has canceled its VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) mission, which was planned to explore the Moon’s South Pole region for water ice.

The vehicle, about the size of a small car, is already built and was awaiting final processing and launch late next year. Now, NASA plans to disassemble and reuse VIPER’s instruments and components for future Moon missions. The Astrobotic Griffin lander, intended to carry the VIPER rover, will proceed with its mission without the rover.

Delays, Rising Cost Cited

Originally slated to launch in 2023, VIPER had experienced delays due to supply chain issues and scheduling delays. NASA cited those reasons in its cancelation announcement today.

VIPER Rover
Photo: NASA

Joel Kearns, the deputy associate administrator for exploration in the science directorate for NASA, stated today in a press conference that the agency had spent $450 million on VIPER. NASA anticipates saving about $84 million dollars by cancelling the project.

“The agency has an array of missions planned to look for ice and other resources on the Moon over the next five years,” NASA’s associate administrator of the science mission directorate, Nicola Fox stated today in a NASA release. “Our path forward will make maximum use of the technology and work that went into VIPER, while preserving critical funds to support our robust lunar portfolio.”

According to NASA, “Astrobotic will continue its Griffin Mission One within its contract with NASA, working toward a launch scheduled for no earlier than fall 2025. The landing without VIPER will provide a flight demonstration of the Griffin lander and its engines.”

NASA will still pay Astrobotic for that mission, despite their removing the payload from it.

NASA also said that the agency “will pursue alternative methods to accomplish many of VIPER’s goals and verify the presence of ice at the lunar South Pole. A future CLPS delivery – the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1) — scheduled to land at the South Pole during the fourth quarter of 2024, will search for water ice and carry out a resource utilization demonstration using a drill and mass spectrometer to measure the volatile content of subsurface materials.”

Some scientists did not agree with this decision. On the X platform, Dr. Phil Metzger, the Director, Stephen W. Hawking Center for Microgravity Research & Education at the University of Central Florida said “This was the premier mission to measure lateral and vertical variations of lunar ice in the soil. It would have been revolutionary. Other missions don’t replace what is lost here.” Dr. Metzger is the co-founder of NASA’s Swamp Works and is a noted space scientist.

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