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Spaceflight Insider
Nicholas D Alessandro
April 15th, 2021
The second flight of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket. Astrobotic has selected SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy to fly its Griffin lander, which will be carrying NASA’s VIPER rover, to the Moon. Credit: Michael McCabe / SpaceFlight Insider
Astrobotic, a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based company specializing in commercial lunar freight landers, announced it has selected SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy to launch its Griffin medium-class lander to the Moon in 2023, carrying NASA’s VIPER lunar rover.
VIPER, or Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, is a NASA mission to explore permanently-shadowed craters at the lunar south pole region to determine if frozen water deposits exist there and that they can support future crewed missions and colonies on the Moon.
SpaceX 2/3
NASA awarded Astrobotic with a US$200 million contract to carry its Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) to the Moon s south pole in the company s Griffin lunar lander
Astrobotic 3/3
Astrobotic s Griffin lunar lander is still under development and will undergo qualification testing later this year
Astrobotic
A NASA next-generation rover designed to sniff out water and ice at the lunar south pole has just been assigned a ride, with SpaceX s Falcon Heavy given the job of launching it along with a medium-capacity lander to the Moon in 2023. The mission is key for the agency as it seeks to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon under its Artemis program, and will be another important outing for the Falcon Heavy, which has flown only a few times before.
SpaceX rocket to deliver Astrobotic lander to Moon in 2023
SpaceX rocket to deliver Astrobotic lander to Moon in 2023
Last Updated: Wed, Apr 14th, 2021, 19:01:40hrs
San Francisco, April 14 (IANS) Space start-up Astrobotic has selected SpaceX s Falcon Heavy rocket to launch its Griffin lunar lander to the Moon in late 2023.
Griffin will be carrying NASA s water-hunting Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER). Getting to the Moon isn t just about building a spacecraft, but having a complete mission solution, Daniel Gillies, Griffin Mission 1 Director for Astrobotic, said in a statement. SpaceX s Falcon Heavy completes our Griffin Mission 1 (GM1) solution by providing a proven launch vehicle to carry us on our trajectory to the Moon. SpaceX has the team, vehicle, and facilities to make this happen.
Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic announced Tuesday it is partnering with SpaceX for yet another groundbreaking moon mission.
In 2023, Astrobotic’s Griffin lunar lander is carrying NASA’s water-hunting Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) to the moon.
But first, it must hitch a ride to get there. So Astrobotic announced its selection of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket to launch the Griffin lander to the moon two years from now.
That’s when Griffin Mission 1 is targeted to launch from SpaceX’s facilities at Kennedy Space Center in Florida the same launch site used for NASA’s Space Shuttle program and Apollo missions.