ASTROBOTIC

Astrobotic just unveiled the flight model of its robotic Peregrine lunar lander, which is slated to launch to the moon late this year.

A new space museum will have an unusual highlight: lunar artifacts that have yet to land on the moon. The Moonshot Museum will be hosted in the headquarters of Astrobotic, a company building landers and rovers for both NASA and commercial moon missions.

Several private companies launching moon landers later this year from Florida will kick off a grand campaign to better understand our nearest neighbor, with big implications for when NASA returns humans to the moon in a few short years.

NASA has a launcher for its ice-hunting rover that will land on the moon in 2023.

A Falcon Heavy will launch Astrobotic's Griffin lander in 2023 from Kennedy Space Center.

Astrobotic's Peregrine Mission One (PM1) mission patch represents the company's first flight of its Peregrine lunar lander and the first attempt to land a commercial spacecraft on the moon. The first commercial lunar landing now has a mission patch. Astrobotic's Peregrine Structural Test Model, a one-to-one scale representation of the Peregrine Mission One (PM1) lander, passed structural qualification testing in September 2020. Artist rendering of Astrobotic's Peregrine lunar lander after touching down on the moon. The Astrobotic's Peregrine Mission One patch will be available for sale in the coming months through Astrobotic's new online store, which the company expects to debut in early April.

Artist's illustration of Astrobotic's robotic Peregrine lander at Lacus Mortis on the moon. The Luna 02 mission is the 18th Celestis memorial spaceflight mission. Celestis' Luna 01 flight sent the "cremains" of the renowned astrogeologist Eugene Shoemaker to the moon aboard NASA's Lunar Prospector spacecraft in 1998. The Peregrine lander is slated to have six Celestis containers, each holding 10 to 13 flight capsules. Elysium Space, tooThe ashes of skydiver Micah Couch are on the Celestis Tranquility Flight.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. – The most recent NASA Mars rover is about the weight of a compact car and jam-packed with science instruments and cameras. Astrobotic Technology, a Pittsburgh-based company, recently sent one of its CubeRovers to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to test out how the little wheeled-robot does on simulated lunar soil. A CubeRover, similar to a CubeSat or tiny satellite, is an affordable option for researchers to send mobile science payloads to the moon. When CubeRover is operational companies, governments and researchers can buy the space they need at $4.5 million per kilogram. Additionally, Astrobotic was awarded a $79.5 million CLPS contract from NASA to deliver 14 payloads to the moon on its Peregrine lunar lander in July 2021.

NASA announced Thursday that private space company Astrobotic will deliver the agency’s moon rover, VIPER, to the moon’s south pole by end of 2023. Under this initiative, NASA will pay private companies to deliver payloads to the moon to establish a lasting presence on the lunar surface. Prior to landing VIPER on the moon, Astrobotic will land its own lunar lander, Peregrine, as early as next year, under a NASA CLPS contract. The Griffin lunar lander is capable of delivering up to 500 kilograms of mass to the lunar surface, according to a news release. After landing, VIPER will come down from Griffin’s ramp onto the lunar surface and will begin mapping lunar water ice.

Spacebit's moon rover on display at the New Scientist Live event in London on October 10, 2019. The U.K. is sending a robotic space exploration rover to the moon, in what will be a first for the country. The rover is a four-legged robot developed by British start-up Spacebit. The robot also comes equipped with cameras one of which can take "robot selfies" and can withstand big swings in temperature, from 130 degrees Celsius (266 degrees Fahrenheit) in the day to minus 130 degrees Celsius at night. The company signed an agreement with U.S. firm Astrobotic to launch its first mission in 2021 on Astrobotic's Peregrine lunar lander.

Orbit Beyond CEO Siba Padhi and chief science officer John Morse and next to the companys lunar lander at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center. On Monday, NASA officials said one of those companies, Orbit Beyond, Inc., has asked to withdraw from the agreement due to time constraints. NASA awarded a combined $253.5 million in contracts to Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines and Orbit Beyond to build spacecraft to land on the moon with scientific instruments as part of the commercial program. On Monday, NASA said in a statement that Orbit Beyond Inc. requested to be released from the task order agreement due to "internal corporate challenges that will prevent the timely completion of its awarded task order." We know that CLPS missions are going to be challenging for various reasons, and they may not always succeed, Zurbuchen said.

Astrobotic: From Pittsburgh to the moon? A team of engineers and scientists from Pittsburgh has gotten one step closer to its moonshot, winning $750,000 on its way to the final round of the Google Lunar XPrize competition. The ultimate winner of the global challenge will launch a mission to the moon in 2016.

Astrobotic lifts off on quest for Google Lunar XPrize Astrobotic, a team from Pittsburgh, is one of 18 teams competing in the Google Lunar XPrize, a race to get to the moon with a $30 million payoff. It recently completed an important test at the Mojave Air and Space Port. CNET's Tim Stevens is following the competition.