NASA Cancels VIPER Moon Mission After Spending $450 Million to Build a Rover

After spending about $450 million to build a rover destined to search for lunar ice, NASA announced it will cancel the program. Amid budget concerns, the decision marks the end of the agency’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER), just days before the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, which achieved the first human lunar landing on July 20, 1969.

The car-sized VIPER rover was in the middle of environmental testing when it got shut down. NASA says other lunar missions will carry out its goal of searching for ice in the shaded craters on the moon’s south pole.

“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,” Nicola Fox, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, says in a statement.

The space agency made its decision because of financial considerations in “a very constrained budget environment in the United States,” Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration at NASA, said during a teleconference Wednesday.

In addition to the $450 million NASA had spent on VIPER’s construction as of June, the agency intends to pay $323 million to keep its contract with Astrobotic Technology, which was building a lander called Griffin to transport VIPER to the moon, reports the New York Times’ Kenneth Chang. The estimated cost of the program had ballooned in recent years, and canceling the mission saves NASA $84 million.

At the teleconference, Fox specified that this outcome was in no way reflective of the VIPER team’s work: “They have worked diligently, including through the pandemic.”

The Covid-19 pandemic was, in fact, part of the problem, as it caused delays in the supply chain of key components for the mission. This caused major setbacks to the construction of both the rover and the Griffin lander. Coupled with the need for additional tests on Griffin, these developments pushed VIPER’s original 2023 launch date back to 2025. Ultimately, the ambiguity of the timeline and the resulting rising cost led NASA to pull the plug.

Some scientists, however, say this development highlights greater budgetary issues within the agency: “This is a perfect illustrative indication about how every single budget wedge at NASA is on fire,” Grant Tremblay at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian, tells New Scientist’s Jonathan O’Callaghan. “I have absolutely no doubt that more bad news is in the pipeline.”

This year, NASA received 8.5 percent less funding than it asked for—the worst funding outcome for the agency compared to its request since 1992, when it received 8.9 percent less money than requested. Other missions—including the Chandra X-ray Observatory, which turns 25 this month—are also dealing with cuts or potential cancellations.

The agency says it is now planning to either sell VIPER as-is to industry partners or disassemble it and reuse its individual components. Astrobotic’s Griffin lander is still scheduled for launch in September 2025—but its new mission will be a flight demonstration with a “mass simulator” meant to fill the place of the rover. The company may also sell space on its flight to private ventures.

John Thornton, CEO of Astrobotic, tells Space News’ Jeff Foust that the news is a “punch to the gut,” but he remains optimistic. “You kind of have to be, in the space industry.”

Margherita Bassi | READ MORE

Margherita Bassi is a trilingual storyteller and freelance journalist with a particular interest in ancient history, astronomy and human interest stories.