With this $79.5 million CLPS award, Astrobotic has now secured 28 payloads for lunar delivery as part of its first mission. Fifty years after Apollo 11, Pittsburgh’s Astrobotic is returning America back to the Moon in partnership with NASA.
Artistic rendition of the Peregrine lander on the Moon. Image is courtesy of Astrobotic.
This announcement of a firm fixed price contract to deliver NASA science, exploration, and technology demonstration payloads to the Moon is a culmination of Astrobotic’s 12 year history as a pioneer in lunar delivery. Astrobotic’s 28 payloads represent eight different countries (including the United States). Payloads comprise of resource development, scientific investigation, technology demonstration, exploration, marketing, arts, and entertainment. NASA’s CLPS selection, along with our existing manifest of signed customers, affirm that Astrobotic’s American-designed Peregrine lander is the market choice for payload customers worldwide.
Peregrine is a lunar lander product line that will carry uncrewed payloads to the Moon. With Peregrine’s robust delivery capacity, the lunar surface is open to companies, governments, and universities, and individuals. The vehicle has passed an industry-standard Preliminary Design Review and the program will build and test a Structural Test Model followed by a Critical Design Review later this year. Peregrine will launch in June 2021 with a planned landing in July 2021.
With 28 payloads now on board for Peregrine Mission One, and a healthy payload pipeline for follow-on Peregrine missions to the Moon, Astrobotic is expanding operations and growing its team. Career openings are available online now at the Astrobotic website the company invites the nation’s best technical talent to make history with them.
Astrobotic CEO John Thornton said that this is a historic day for Astrobotic and the commercial lunar market. It is an awe-inspiring responsibility to be charged with delivering NASA’s payloads alongside the firm's existing manifest of customers. Astrobotic was founded on the tenets of technical excellence, credible timelines and value to customers. NASA’s confidence in the company's services is a testament to the hard work of the Astrobotic team, which spent 12 years making commercial lunar delivery a reality. Today, that hard work has come to fruition.