presentation<\/a> by Mark Clampin, deputy associate administrator for science, to the National Academies\u2019 Space Studies Board did not list the CS-7 task order among past and future CLPS missions running through 2029.<\/p>\nIn a response to SpaceNews, the agency said it reviewed options from April to June for alternative ways to deliver VIPER. In May, NASA ended plans for a commercial partnership, saying it was exploring \u201calternative approaches.\u201d<\/p>\n
NASA ultimately adopted a \u201cbase plus option\u201d structure, with an initial award for design work and an option for the landing mission. Exercising that option will depend on Blue Moon\u2019s modifications to accommodate VIPER and on a successful landing of Blue Moon\u2019s first mission, scheduled for as soon as late this year. The total value of the task order is $190 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn July, NASA queried the CLPS vendor pool to determine vendors had the capability to meet NASA\u2019s specific requirements for delivery of VIPER to the moon,\u201d the agency said. \u201cBased on the results of that query, NASA issued to the CLPS vendors a Request for Task Order Proposals in August.\u201d<\/p>\n
NASA said only one proposal came in, from Blue Origin. \u201cThe agency evaluated the submission in accordance with standard procurement procedures and determined it met NASA\u2019s requirements, leading to this award.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blue Origin may have been the only viable option. VIPER weighs 450 kilograms, too large for smaller landers that have already gone to the moon such as Firefly Aerospace\u2019s Blue Ghost or Intuitive Machines\u2019 Nova-C.<\/p>\n
Astrobotic declined to bid on CS-7 with Griffin. \u201cGiven the compressed timeline of the CS-7 mission and our commitments to existing customers, Astrobotic made the strategic decision not to submit a bid,\u201d the company said Sept. 19.<\/p>\n
SpaceX is also part of the CLPS program but has yet to win a CLPS task order for its Starship lunar lander, a version of which will carry astronauts through NASA\u2019s Human Landing System program.<\/p>\n
Nicky Fox, NASA associate administrator for science, offered few details about the Blue Origin decision when asked at a Sept. 21 press conference about the upcoming launch of three space weather missions.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the time, we did not have a path forward for the VIPER mission with a lander,\u201d she said of the 2024 cancellation. \u201cWe\u2019ve gone through a number of steps to find the right ride. It was solicited through a CLPS payload call, so our CLPS vendors were able to propose and we were very excited about the successful proposal coming in from Blue Origin.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reviving VIPER also creates staffing challenges. NASA told SpaceNews that personnel assigned to VIPER were reassigned to other work in March.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith this CS-7 award, NASA will initiate and staff a new, follow-on project to operate VIPER on the moon and conduct measurements using VIPER\u2019s science instruments,\u201d the agency said. That project will be based at Ames Research Center, which managed the original VIPER effort, with support from Johnson Space Center. \u201cNASA has not yet defined whether the scope of this new operations effort will be the same as the originally planned VIPER project.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 Blue Origin was the sole bidder for a NASA task order that revived a canceled lunar…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":250843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[51717,888,132836,916,159,16988,783,67,132,68,132837],"class_list":{"0":"post-250842","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-blue-moon","9":"tag-blue-origin","10":"tag-clps","11":"tag-nasa","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-sn","14":"tag-space","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-viper"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115257795083279437","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}