{"id":17092,"date":"2025-09-19T23:52:49","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T15:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasa-puts-in-an-order-with-blue-origin-to-work-on-sending-viper-rover-to-moons-south-pole\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T23:52:49","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T15:52:49","slug":"nasa-puts-in-an-order-with-blue-origin-to-work-on-sending-viper-rover-to-moons-south-pole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasa-puts-in-an-order-with-blue-origin-to-work-on-sending-viper-rover-to-moons-south-pole\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA puts in an order with Blue Origin to work on sending VIPER rover to moon\u2019s south pole"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An artist\u2019s conception shows NASA\u2019s VIPER rover and Blue Origin\u2019s Blue Moon MK1 lander on the lunar surface. (Blue Origin Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NASA has selected Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture to help it resurrect a mission to send a robotic prospector to the moon\u2019s south polar region.<\/p>\n

Kent, Wash.-based Blue Origin will be tasked with drawing up a plan to deliver the VIPER rover to the moon in late 2027, using its uncrewed Blue Moon MK1 cargo lander. This would be Blue Origin\u2019s second lunar lander. The first lander is due for launch as early as this year, with the objective of delivering NASA\u2019s SCALPSS camera system and a retroreflective array to the lunar surface.<\/p>\n

The newly announced task order, known as CS-7, was awarded through NASA\u2019s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program and has a total potential value of $190 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cNASA is leading the world in exploring more of the moon than ever before, and this delivery is just one of many ways we\u2019re leveraging U.S. industry to support a long-term American presence on the lunar surface,\u201d acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy said today in a news release.<\/p>\n

VIPER is designed to explore permanently shadowed regions near the moon\u2019s south pole for signs of volatile materials, including water ice. Such ice could be extracted to produce drinkable water and breathable oxygen as well as hydrogen for rocket fuel. For what it\u2019s worth, VIPER is an acronym that stands for V<\/strong>olatiles I<\/strong>nvestigating P<\/strong>olar E<\/strong>xploration R<\/strong>over.<\/p>\n

Duffy said the VIPER mission will \u201chelp inform future landing sites for our astronauts and better understand the moon\u2019s environment \u2013 important insights for sustaining humans over longer missions, as America leads our future in space.\u201d<\/p>\n

VIPER was originally due to go to the moon aboard Astrobotic\u2019s Griffin lander, but last year, NASA put the mission on hold due to cost increases and schedule delays. This year, NASA said it was exploring \u201calternative approaches\u201d for getting VIPER to the moon \u2014 a process that led up to today\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking forward to partnering with NASA to prepare VIPER for flight on our second MK1 lunar lander,\u201d Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said in a posting to X. \u201cVIPER is incredibly important, including instruments to help search for resources like ice. This includes our Honeybee Robotics TRIDENT drill, designed to penetrate up to 3 ft, or 1 m, below the lunar surface.\u201d<\/p>\n

For its part, Astrobotic said it was \u201cheartened to hear\u201d that VIPER will have the opportunity to fly. \u201cGiven the compressed timeline of the CS-7 mission and our commitments to existing customers, Astrobotic made the strategic decision not to submit a bid,\u201d the company said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n

The base task for Blue Origin involves designing accommodations for the VIPER rover and demonstrating how its flight design will offload the rover to the lunar surface. NASA will decide whether to exercise its option to have Blue Origin deliver and deploy the rover after it reviews Blue Origin\u2019s preparatory work and the first flight of the Blue Moon MK1 lander.<\/p>\n

VIPER has a targeted science window for its 100-day mission that requires a landing by late 2027. Under the terms of the task order, Blue Origin would handle payload integration, planning and support, as well as post-landing deployment activities. NASA would be in charge of rover operations and science planning.<\/p>\n

Update for 1:30 p.m. PT Sept. 23: <\/strong>Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said the task order was good news for Washington state\u2019s space industry:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThis announcement is fantastic news for Kent-based Blue Origin and Washington state\u2019s entire aerospace economy, which supports nearly 200,000 jobs and keeps our state on the cutting-edge of scientific discovery. This contract means that Blue Origin will help lay the groundwork for humans returning to the moon \u2014 that\u2019s a big deal!<\/p>\n

\u201cWashington state has long been a world leader in aerospace manufacturing and engineering \u2014 which is critical to our state\u2019s economy \u2014 and our influence is only growing. As a longtime supporter of Washington state\u2019s aerospace sector and vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I will keep fighting for federal investment in the innovation that keeps America at the forefront of human discovery.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An artist\u2019s conception shows NASA\u2019s VIPER rover and Blue Origin\u2019s Blue Moon MK1 lander on the lunar surface. (Blue Origin Illustration) NASA has selected Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture to help it resurrect a mission to send a robotic prospector to the moon\u2019s south polar region. Kent, Wash.-based Blue Origin will be tasked with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[509,625,190,4420],"class_list":["post-17092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-origin","tag-moon","tag-nasa","tag-viper-rover"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17092"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17092\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}