SpaceX plans to send a payload to the Moon in 2023 using its larger (and infrequently used) Falcon Heavy launch vehicle. The mission will fly a lander built by the space launch Astrobotic, which will carry NASA’s VIPER itself, or Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (this is the agency that wants to torture the language to come up with fun acronyms ).
The launch is currently scheduled for later this year, and it will be Falcon Heavy’s first lunar mission if all goes well. However, this would not be SpaceX’s first lunar outing, as the company had already booked missions to launch lunar landers on behalf of Masten and Intuitive Machines in 2022. Both use Falcon 9 rockets, at least according to current mission specifications. All of the above timelines have so far only existed on paper, and in space delays and shift shifts are far from uncommon.
However, this mission is important to all involved, and therefore they are likely to prioritize its implementation. For NASA, this is an important mission in the long-term objectives for Artemis, the program by which it wants to bring humans back to the moon, and ultimately establish a more permanent scientific presence there in orbit and on the surface. Part of setting up a surface station will depend on the use of in situ resources, of which water will be a very important one.
Image credits: Astroboties
Astrobotic was awarded the contract to deliver VIPER on behalf of NASA last year. The mission profile includes the landing of the payload on the lunar South Pole, which is the intended target landing area for NASA’s Artemis missions involving human astronauts. The lander Astrobotic is sending for this task is its Griffin model, which is a larger vessel compared to its Peregrine lander, which requires the extra space to transport the VIPER, making it necessary to launch SpaceX’s heavier Falcon Heavy launch vehicle to use.
NASA’s ambitious goal of landing astronauts back on the Moon by 2024 is underway as the new government looks at timelines and budgets, but it still seems committed to using public-private partnerships around the way. to track, whenever it is achieved. This first Griffin mission, along with an earlier planned Peregrine landing, is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which sought private partners to build and decommission lunar landers with NASA as one customer. liver.