Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) on the lunar surface. (NASA)
“I’m very disappointed in the recent NASA decision to cancel the VIPER rover…Please work with me as the bill moves forward to look for ways to repurpose the lander portion of this mission to advance moon-to-Mars objectives. The mission directly supports a national imperative for continued US leadership in science and exploration in the face of urgent geopolitical competition.”
-Statement by Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) at a July 25, 2024 budget hearing, as quoted by CNN. The CNN story highlights efforts by The Planetary Society to encourage the continuation of the mission as well as NASA’s efforts to solicit U.S. industry and international partners’ “expressions of interest” by August 1, 2024 for ways to use “the existing VIPER rover system at no cost to the government.”
Image (Credit): Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft as seen from the ISS. (Northrop Grumman)
The weather in Florida has delayed today’s Northrop Grumman resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS). In fact, SpaceX is launching the payload for Grumman from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station rather than the typical launch facility in Virginia. The Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo spacecraft with its 8,200 pounds of supplies will probably need to sit on the launch pad for a few more days until the weather clears.
Why is SpaceX launching a Grumman resupply mission, you might ask? Doesn’t Grumman have its own rocket? Yes, and no. It has launches most of its resupply missions on its own Antares rocket, but the newest version of the rocket, the Antares 330, is still being finalized and is not expected to be ready until next year. As a result, Grumman procured three flights from SpaceX.
The ability of the commercial parties to support one another’s missions is encouraging, just as the European Space Agency dependied on SpaceX while it developed a new generation of its Ariane rocket.
SpaceX is always there to help (at a cost, of course) as other rocket companies prepare for the challenges ahead. In the case of Northrop Grumman, it needed to move away from its reliance on Ukrainian/Russian rockets and create a more reliable supply chain.
Image (Credit): An artist’s rendering of the NASA’s PRIME-1 spacecraft approaching the Moon. The mission will need to accomplish some of the work previously assigned to the VIPER mission. (NASA)
Am I missing anything? Oh yeah, and NASA has decided to cancel its Moon rover, the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) project, after spending $450 million. Cost overruns and multiple delays had made the mission too expensive and too late in the game to be useful.
Nicola Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters in Washington, stated:
We are committed to studying and exploring the Moon for the benefit of humanity through the [Commercial Lunar Payload Services] program…The agency has an array of missions planned to look for ice and other resources on the Moon over the next five years. 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.
Fortunately, VIPER was one of a number of missions designed to seek water on the lunar surface. For example, NASA has the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1) , which is still scheduled to land at the South Pole later this year.
It has been a rough year for NASA, but the multiple missions planned for the Moon provide more opportunities to get it right, while the ISS issues do not appear insurmountable. NASA just needs a break, and its commercial partners need to prove they can meet the goals that were set for them.
Note: If you were one of the people who added your name to the VIPER mission, maybe NASA will open up another opportunity for your name on the Moon.
Image (Credit): The launch of the Apollo 11 space vehicle from the launch pad on July 16, 1969. (NASA/ Kipp Teague)
On this day in 1969, NASA launched the Saturn V rocket that carried astronauts Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, and Michael Collins on the first manned lunar landing. The 363-feet tall Saturn V rocket was launched from Pad A, Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center, at 9:32 a.m. EDT.
While this was the most significant use of the Saturn V at that point in time, it was the backbone of the Apollo program. The first crewed Saturn V to launch was Apollo 8, which orbited the Moon without landing.
You can listen in on the control room chatter surrounding the launch at this NASA launch history site.
NASA has a number of events planned for this month to celebrate the 55th anniversary of the Moon landing. You can read about the planned activities at this NASA anniversary site.
Image (Credit): NASA’s Europa Clipper poster. (NASA/ Jet Propulsion Laboratory-Caltech)
“Engineers with NASA’s Europa Clipper mission continue to conduct extensive testing of transistors that help control the flow of electricity on the spacecraft. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which manages the mission, began the tests after learning that some of these parts may not withstand the radiation of the Jupiter system, which is the most intense radiation environment in the solar system.”
–NASA statement from yesterday regarding potential issues with electrical switches on the Europa Clipper spacecraft that is set to launch in October. Whether this leads to a delayed launch of the mission or a less nimble mission has yet to be determined. The preliminary findings from the current testing are expected to be released later this month.
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