NASA cancels lunar rover after cost overruns, delays

WASHINGTON — NASA announced on Wednesday that cost overruns and delays have forced it to cancel a planned moon rover it already spent $450 million to develop, marking a significant setback for the agency's lunar exploration program.

The Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, was intended to explore the lunar South Pole in search of ice and other resources, paving the way for planned crewed missions by US astronauts under the Artemis program later this decade.

"Decisions like this are never easy," Nicky Fox, associate administrator of NASA's science mission directorate, said.

"But in this case, the projected remaining expenses for VIPER would have resulted in having to either cancel or disrupt many other missions."

The mobile robot, which NASA had hoped would venture into the moon's permanently shadowed craters, where ice reserves have endured for billions of years, was originally planned to be launched last year.

But in 2022, the US space agency requested a launch delay to late 2024 to allow more time for preflight testing of the Griffin lander vehicle, supplied by the Pittsburgh-based company Astrobotic under the new Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, a public-private venture.

The launch readiness date of the rover then slipped back further to September 2025, while the cost was projected to rise to $609.6 million.

Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA's science mission directorate, said Congress had been notified of the agency's decision.

The rover was "completely assembled", but had not yet undergone certain tests that would certify it could withstand the launch, flying through the vacuum of space, and experiencing extreme temperatures, Kearns said.

But it was still possible the rover could be reused in future missions, either in whole or in component parts, if NASA could reach a suitable agreement with industry partners who might be interested, he said.

Astrobotic, which in January launched the Peregrine lander that failed to reach the moon, is still on track to launch in late 2025, but it will now carry a "mass simulator "or heavy weight in place of a NASA rover.

Agencies Via Xinhua