{"id":9534,"date":"2026-06-16T23:04:55","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T15:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/astrobotic-showcases-griffin-1-lander-ahead-of-environmental-testing-in-california\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T23:04:55","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T15:04:55","slug":"astrobotic-showcases-griffin-1-lander-ahead-of-environmental-testing-in-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/astrobotic-showcases-griffin-1-lander-ahead-of-environmental-testing-in-california\/","title":{"rendered":"Astrobotic showcases Griffin-1 lander ahead of environmental testing in California"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Technicians work on Astrobotic\u2019s Griffin-1 lander inside a cleanroom at the company\u2019s facility in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Monday, June 15, 2026. Image: Will Robinson-Smith\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Astrobotic showed off its nearly completed lunar lander, named Griffin-1, as the vehicle prepares to head to NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California for environmental testing later this month.<\/p>\n

The robotic lander, which has a 650 kg payload capacity, has been integrated with multiple payloads so far. On exception is Astrolab\u2019s FLIP (FLEX Lunar Innovation Platform) rover. FLIP will meet its lander down at Cape Canaveral for integration in the final weeks ahead of launch later this year.<\/p>\n

Dozens gathered on Monday at the Moonshot Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to mark the milestone. The site is adjacent to Astrobotic\u2019s facilities and has a large window into the cleanroom, which allows for public viewing of the ongoing work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fantastic to see the cross-section of Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania standing up, coming together, celebrating this big, big moment in space,\u201d said John Thornton, Astrobotic\u2019s CEO.<\/p>\n

\u201cPittsburgh is in the space race. it\u2019s not just a thing that happens in Houston or San Francisco or LA or Florida anymore. It happens right here in Pennsylvania and it\u2019s in part do to the partnerships, the great people in this room that helped build this region up.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Technicians work on Astrobotic\u2019s Griffin-1 lander inside a cleanroom at the company\u2019s facility in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Monday, June 15, 2026. Image: Will Robinson-Smith\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thornton noted that the Griffin lander concept has been in the development chain going back nearly to the founding of Astrobotic almost two decades ago. The Griffin-1 mission is the follow up to the company\u2019s first lunar landing attempt in January 2024, Peregrine-1.<\/p>\n

That lander encountered a helium valve issue early in flight, which prevented a landing attempt. Thornton said their in-house avionics and other systems on the lander worked as expected on that flight and the post-anomaly review board worked through the fault tree and potential links to the future Griffin landers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Griffin lander behind me has integrated all of those lessons learned. We did an exhaustive failure review board that did not just look at what we knew had failed, but also any other things that could have failed or any potential risks,\u201d Thornton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve closed all of those loops with this lander behind me. This lander has a dual redundant valve system, two dissimilar valves that both have to fail to have the same outcome,\u201d he added. \u201cThat will not happen. We are done with valve issues on our landers.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The payload for the Certification-1 (Cert-1) flight test on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan rocket prior to encapsulation inside its payload fairing in preparation for launch. The mission launched the first Astrobotic Peregrine commercial lunar lander, as part of NASA\u2019s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, into a highly elliptical orbit more than 220,000 miles (360,000 km) above Earth to intercept the Moon and carry a Celestis Memorial Spaceflight Payload into deep space. Image: ULA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Also present for Monday\u2019s event was Carlos Garc\u00eda-Gal\u00e1n, NASA\u2019s Program Executive for the Moon Base. During a recent Moon Base event at NASA Headquarters in Washington D.C., he and NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman pointed to the Griffin-1 mission as a foundational flight for the program, dubbing it the Moon Base 2 mission.<\/p>\n

During Monday\u2019s event, Garc\u00eda-Gal\u00e1n said the mission is a crucial stepping stone as the agency learns what will ultimately be needed for permanent infrastructure at the Moon\u2019s south pole.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so critical that we get this going quickly, fast, and then it\u2019s going to be one of the cornerstones of setting up the cadence we\u2019re going to need to build this,\u201d Garc\u00eda-Gal\u00e1n said. \u201cThis mission, that this machine is part of, is more than about carrying payloads. It\u2019s carrying new technologies that will help us understand how to do these things, like landing on the Moon successfully, reliably, and deploying rovers that would then give us the ground truth for deployment systems, and operating all at once: doing the operations, the communications, all of that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, Astrobotic announced that it was in the process of being acquired by Voyager Technologies, making it part of its lunar strategy. Matt Maga\u00f1a, Voyager\u2019s President of Defense & National Security, said Monday that the work Astrobotic is undertaking made a natural fit for Voyager\u2019s deep space ambitions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you, all of Astrobotic\u2019s folks, for all the work you\u2019ve done to get to this Griffin-1, but this is only the beginning,\u201d Maga\u00f1a said. \u201cSuper excited for the launch this year. Super excited for all the plans that we have to help scale this company, help scale this, and actually get a habitat on the lunar surface.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Left to right: Matt Maga\u00f1a, John Thornton, Carlos Garc\u00eda-Gal\u00e1n, Kelly Randell, Justine Kasznica, Ryan Stephan, and Dr. Jimyse Brown pose in front of the Griffin-1 (Moon Base 2) lander. Image: Will Robinson-Smith\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The main payload on the Griffin-1 mission, FLIP, is also undergoing its own environmental tests and checkouts after completing its own payload integration. The rover is a pathfinder for technology that Astrolab will use on its lunar terrain vehicles: the Crewed Lunar Vehicle (CLV-1) and the Flexible Logistics and Exploration (FLEX).<\/p>\n

The FLIP rover was designed and actualized in about 18 months after NASA temporarily cancelled its VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) mission in July 2024, leaving an opening on Griffin-1. Kelly Randell, Astrolab\u2019s Business Development Manager, said they\u2019re excited to be carrying NASA payloads on its own technology demonstration mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really honored to be part of this with NASA and Astrobotic. We\u2019re also honored that the FLIP mission will hopefully really further technologies for our lunar terrain vehicle, which hopefully will have astronauts driving it in the very near future,\u201d Randell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we think about all of the opportunities that this mission will bring, that it will really make a tangible impact on what we\u2019re trying to build up on the surface, and really enable us to build a sustainable human prescreens off-planet, which I think is just incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Griffin-1 mission is scheduled to launch onboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in the fourth quarter of 2026. A specific launch date hasn\u2019t been announced.<\/p>\n