Tag: Astrobotic
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ULA’s Vulcan rocket selected for launches of moon lander and mini-shuttle in 2021
An artist’s conception shows United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket lifting off. (ULA Illustration) United Launch Alliance’s next-generation Vulcan rocket – and Blue Origin’s next-generation BE-4 rocket engine – have been chosen to send Astrobotic’s Peregrine moon lander as well as Sierra Nevada Corp.’s Dream Chaser mini-shuttle to the final frontier in 2021. Neither of the…
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NASA picks three companies to send commercial landers to the moon
Artist’s concept of Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander. Credit: Astrobotic NASA has announced that Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines and OrbitBeyond won contracts to deliver science instruments and technology demonstration payloads to the moon’s surface in the first of a series of robotic missions preceding a human return to the moon. The three companies are developing commercial lunar…
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NASA picks first commercial ventures to deliver scientific payloads to the moon
An artist’s conception shows a lunar lander with scientific payloads. (NASA Illustration) Update for 6 p.m. PT July 31: One of the commercial ventures selected to deliver science experiments to the moon’s surface, New Jersey-based Orbit Beyond, is bowing out of the first round of deliveries. NASA said Orbit Beyond ran into “internal corporate challenges”…
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NASA to soon announce winner of first commercial lunar lander competition
Artist’s concept of Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander. Credit: Astrobotic Within days, NASA is expected to select a winner from a roster of nine eligible companies to try and become the first commercial entity to accomplish a soft landing on the moon with a robotic spacecraft. The privately-developed probe would be the vanguard in a series of…
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NASA picks nine companies to compete for commercial lunar lander missions
A concept illustration of Lockheed Martin’s McCandless lunar lnader for NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payloads Services (CLPS) program. Credit: NASA/Lockheed Martin NASA announced Thursday nine companies that will be eligible to compete for up to $2.6 billion in contracts over the next decade to ferry scientific instruments and tech demo payloads to the moon aboard commercial…
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NASA picks nine commercial teams for moon deliveries – including dark horses
Lockheed Martin is offering its McCandless lunar lander, shown here with an onboard rover in an artist’s conception, for future NASA missions to the moon. (Lockheed Martin Illustration) NASA says it’s partnering on lunar delivery services with nine commercial teams, headed by companies that run the gamut from the space industry’s heavyweights to startups. The…
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Blue Origin’s lunar lander program wins a share of NASA’s ‘tipping-point’ tech awards
An artist’s conception shows Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander on the lunar surface. (Blue Origin Illustration) NASA is awarding $44 million to six commercial partners to support “tipping-point” technologies that range from lunar landing capabilities to in-space refueling and spacecraft servicing. Blue Origin, the space venture that was founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos and…
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Arch Mission teams up with Astrobotic to send Wikipedia and more to the moon
The Lunar Library will be stored as microfiche images etched on stamp-sized squares of nickel. A dime is set among the squares to provide a sense of scale. (Arch Mission Foundation Photo) The Arch Mission Foundation is partnering with Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic to have a miniaturized library sent to the moon’s surface aboard a lunar lander…
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NASA is reworking its moon rover mission amid outcry from lunar advisory group
A prototype for the Resource Prospector rover undergoes field testing. (NASA via YouTube) An influential group of advisers on lunar exploration says NASA is canceling its Resource Prospector mission to explore the moon’s surface in the 2020s — and urged the agency’s newly sworn-in administrator, Jim Bridenstine, to reverse the decision. In response, NASA pledged today…
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Robotics pioneer Red Whittaker wants to put a robot on the moon, and land Amazon in his backyard
Red Whittaker, founder and director of Carnegie Mellon University’s Field Robotics Center, with Cave Crawler, a robot developed to autonomously map underground mines. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop) PITTSBURGH — Asked if he will eventually land a robot on the moon, William “Red” Whittaker doesn’t hold back. “Oh, hell yes,” says the Carnegie Mellon University…