On Friday, Blue Origin secured a major NASA contract to deliver a lunar rover to the moon. This award serves as a strong vote of confidence in the company’s Blue Moon lander and the future of human exploration.
The contract also ensures that the VIPER rover will finally reach the lunar surface. NASA had previously shelved the entire program last year due to delays and cost overruns. Under the new agreement, Blue Origin will carry VIPER, which stands for Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, on its uncrewed Blue Moon MK1 lander. This mission is distinct from the company’s separate contract to build a human-rated lander for the Artemis program.
NASA granted this new award under its Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. The task order is valued at roughly 190 million dollars. The Blue Moon MK1 mission is targeting a landing site near the moon’s south pole, a region where scientists believe significant stores of water ice exist. VIPER will drill into the surface to test that hypothesis.
This decision closes an uncertain chapter for the VIPER rover. NASA initially selected the Pittsburgh-based company Astrobotic in 2020 to deliver the rover on its Griffin lander. After delays affected both the rover and the lander, NASA canceled the VIPER mission in July 2024, citing ballooning costs even though much of the hardware was already built. The cancellation drew criticism from lawmakers and scientists. One month later, NASA requested ideas from US companies on how to utilize the existing rover without adding government costs.
For Blue Origin, this win is highly significant. The award provides the company’s cargo lander with its first high-profile scientific payload and sets a firm schedule for launch in late 2027. It also represents a second major NASA endorsement of the company’s lunar ambitions, following the Human Landing System contract.
About the size of a golf cart, the VIPER rover will spend approximately 100 days on the lunar surface. It will drive across the terrain, prospecting and drilling to map water ice deposits. The rover is equipped with several instruments, including a drill and three spectrometers designed to detect water, hydrogen, and other minerals.
The mission’s findings are crucial to NASA’s future science objectives and to establishing any long-term human presence on the moon. The ability to extract local resources, rather than transporting everything from Earth, will be critical. Water ice could potentially be converted into drinking water, breathable oxygen, and even rocket propellant.