Due to exceeding budget estimates and delays in progress, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has announced the cancellation of the deployment plan for the lunar rover VIPER.
On July 17, NASA announced that it has been forced to cancel the deployment plan for the lunar rover VIPER due to costs exceeding projections and stalled timelines, despite having spent $450 million on the development of this equipment.
Observers consider this a significant setback for NASA’s lunar exploration program.
Lunar rover VIPER. (Source: NASA).
The VIPER rover was developed with the goal of exploring the Moon’s South Pole to search for ice and other resources, paving the way for American astronauts to return to the Moon under NASA’s Artemis program by the end of this decade.
Nicky Fox, an official at NASA, stated: “Such decisions are never easy. But in this case, the remaining funds needed for VIPER were projected to lead to the cancellation or disruption of many other missions.”
VIPER was initially scheduled for launch in 2023. NASA had hoped that VIPER would explore shadowed craters on the Moon, where ice reserves have existed for billions of years.
However, in 2022, NASA decided to postpone the deployment of this robotic rover until late 2024 to allow more time for testing before the launch of the Griffin lander, provided by Astrobotic as part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program—a public-private partnership.
Subsequently, the launch plan for VIPER was further delayed to September 2025, while projected costs rose to $609.6 million.
Another NASA official, Joel Kearns, mentioned that VIPER has been “fully assembled,” but has not yet undergone testing that could certify that the rover meets the requirements for launching, traveling through space, and withstanding extreme temperature conditions.
Nonetheless, according to Joel Kearns, this rover could still be reused in future missions, whether in whole or in part, if NASA reaches appropriate agreements with interested partners.
