I did not follow up on yesterday’s post when Astrobotic said it was moving onto its Griffin mission. What is that?
The Griffin mission involved a lunar lander as well, but this time the destination will be the Moon’s South Pole. The lander will deploy NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER), which will be searching for water.
The Griffin/VIPER duo was supposed to be on the Moon already, but we already know about delays. I expect the delays will only lengthen as NASA and Astrobotic try to better understand what happened earlier this week with the Peregine lunar lander. NASA does not want to lose a rover.
NASA’s launch website now still has the VIPER landing scheduled for late 2024.
You can read more about the Griffen lander specs here.
Our Awesome Universe 