NASA Still Looking for A Way to Get VIPER to the Moon

NASA is still looking for ideas on how to get the VIPER rover to the Moon. The rover is already built, but the agency canceled plans to use a commercial lander to deliver it to the lunar surface. After soliciting ideas from industry to see if anyone would take the project over at no further cost to NASA, the conclusion is that none were suitable. Today the solicitation was withdrawn.

NASA has been evaluating 11 proposals from industry, but revealed today that none were acceptable.

At a meeting of NASA’s Lunar Surface Science Workshop (LSSW), Nicky Fox, head of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD), briefly mentioned that “NASA is seeking new approaches that could potentially get our wonderful VIPER rover to the Moon.” She added that they had been evaluating the industry responses “and now we are continuing to explore alternative approaches.”

Shortly thereafter, NASA posted a statement on the VIPER blog that gave a clearer picture of what that meant — NASA was canceling the solicitation and “opting to explore alternative approaches.”

Later at the LSSW meeting, Joel Kearns, SMD’s Deputy Associate Administrator for Exploration, said they are “looking at different types of partnerships that are structured differently than what we originally envisioned to try and generate stronger proposals.” Kearns added they’re “not ready to comment today on the details or timing of that.”

SMD is facing significant funding challenges. President Trump’s FY2026 budget proposal calls for a $6 billion cut — 24.3 percent — to NASA’s budget and more than half of that would come from SMD.

NASA’s abrupt announcement of VIPER’s cancellation on July 17, 2024 was a surprise to the lunar science community.  The agency had often promoted VIPER, the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, as a key element in the quest to determine the location and quantity of water ice at the Moon’s South Pole. The agency described the water resource map VIPER data would produce as “a critical step forward for NASA’s Artemis missions to establish a long-term presence on the surface of the Moon.”

VIPER was also to be another example of how NASA could buy commercial lunar landing services through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative instead of building their own landers.  Equipped with three scientific instruments and a drill, the rover was to be delivered to the Moon by a commercial lander, Griffin, built by Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic. Astrobotic and several other companies have CLPS contracts to deliver NASA science and technology experiments to the Moon. NASA pays for delivery services for its payloads. The companies are expected to find non-NASA customers to close the business case.

But VIPER’s cost grew well beyond what the agency planned to spend.  Originally estimated at $250 million, by the time NASA made a commitment to Congress it was $433.5 million with landing in 2023. By early 2024, it was $505.4 million.  Then Astrobotic’s first CLPS lander, Peregrine, failed to reach the Moon in January 2024. NASA worried that Griffin’s development would be affected and VIPER’s launch date would slip, boosting the cost to $609.6 million.

So after spending $450 million on VIPER, the agency canceled the program. It will still pay Astrobotic the full $323 million for landing services on the basis that eventually the 500 kilogram Griffin lander will get to the Moon and that in itself will benefit the agency’s lunar exploration plans even though no NASA payloads are aboard.

VIPER is completely built, has passed all its pre-launch tests, and is in storage awaiting launch. NASA has spent more than $850 million on it already. It will be interesting to see what the new “alternative approaches” turn out to be.