Tag: Astrolab
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Astrobotic showcases Griffin-1 lander ahead of environmental testing in California
Technicians work on Astrobotic’s Griffin-1 lander inside a cleanroom at the company’s facility in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Monday, June 15, 2026. Image: Will Robinson-Smith/Spaceflight Now Astrobotic showed off its nearly completed lunar lander, named Griffin-1, as the vehicle prepares to head to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California for environmental testing later this month. The…
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NASA outlines nearly $1 billion investment into initial Moon Base missions
An artist’s rendering of a Blue Origin Blue Moon Mark 1 lunar lander deploying Astrolab’s Crewed Lunar Vehicle (CLV-1) on the surface of the Moon. Graphic: Astrolab NASA’s vision for a future, long-term sustained presence on the Moon gained more clarity on Tuesday as the agency announced a series of contract awards for future robotic…
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NASA taps Blue Origin to deliver lunar rovers for Moon Base initiative
An artist’s conception shows Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 lander lowering an Astrolab rover to the lunar surface. (NASA Illustration) Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture has won NASA’s nod to deliver crew-carrying rovers to the lunar surface as part of the space agency’s decade-long plan to create a base near the moon’s south…
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Astrolab to Send Scientific Payloads to Lunar South Pole on FLIP Rover Mission
Astrolab is preparing to send a series of scientific payloads to the Moon later this year aboard its FLIP rover mission aimed at supporting future lunar exploration near the Moon’s south pole. The company said its FLEX Lunar Innovation Platform rover, known as FLIP, will carry multiple research instruments designed to study lunar surface conditions,…
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As Moon interest heats up, two companies unveil plans for a lunar “harvester”
The Moon has received a lot of attention in recent months, particularly the surface of Earth’s cold and dusty companion. This has largely been driven by a decision from SpaceX founder Elon Musk to pivot, at least in the near term, from Mars to lunar surface activities and the potential for using material there to…
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Interlune will team up with Astrolab to send a camera to the moon for helium-3 survey
An artist’s conception shows Astrolab’s FLIP rover on the moon. Interlune plans to put a helium-hunting multispectral camera on the rover. (Astrolab Illustration) Seattle-based Interlune says it’s struck a deal with California-based Astrolab to send a multispectral camera to the moon to estimate how much helium-3 is present in lunar soil. Interlune’s camera will be…
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After a wrenching decision by NASA, private lunar lander finds a new customer
Last year was not a good one for a lunar lander company based in Pittsburgh named Astrobotic. In January, the company’s first spacecraft finally launched after years of delays, carrying dozens of payloads, scientific instruments, and time capsules. But within hours of launch, the Peregrine spacecraft developed a propellant leak in its propulsion system. Although…
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If Starship is real, we’re going to need big cargo movers on the Moon and Mars
As a SpaceX engineer working on the Starship program about five years ago, Jaret Matthews could see the future of spaceflight quite clearly and began to imagine the possibilities. For decades everything that went to space had to be carefully measured, optimized for mass, and serve an extremely specialized purpose. But Starship, Matthews believed, held…