posted 02-05-2025 11:23 AM               

Astrolab's FLIP rover joins Astrobotic's Griffin-1 to the Moon

Today (Feb. 5), Venturi Astrolab (Astrolab) and Astrobotic announced that Astrobotic's Griffin lander will deliver an Astrolab rover to the Moon as part of Astrobotic's Griffin Mission One (Griffin-1). The rover, currently known as FLIP (FLEX Lunar Innovation Platform), will be deployed at the Nobile Region of the lunar south pole.

The Astrobotic mission, originally carrying the VIPER payload as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, is scheduled for delivery at the end of 2025.

Above: A rendering of Astrolab's FLIP rover fully deployed from Astrobotic's Griffin-1 lander on the lunar surface.

"Astrobotic received worldwide interest from dozens of organizations eager to fly aboard Griffin-1, and we conducted a rigorous selection process to identify the mission partner that aligned best with our timeline and Griffin's capabilities. Astrolab shares our vision of making lunar science, exploration, and commercial activity both accessible and transformative. By deploying the FLIP rover on Griffin-1, we are advancing humanity's future on the Moon and enabling groundbreaking U.S. technology demonstrations at the lunar South Pole," says John Thornton, Astrobotic's founder and CEO.

Astrobotic is at the forefront of making the Moon accessible to the world as a leading provider of lunar transportation, mobility, and power. In July, NASA announced its intent to discontinue the VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) project due to funding constraints, future budget risks, and lander delays. The NASA CLPS contract to deliver VIPER to the Moon has been modified to serve as a large lander demonstration flight.

Astrobotic's Griffin lander will demonstrate this capability and fly a similar mass load as VIPER to the South Pole region of the Moon. To help achieve this goal, Astrobotic's Griffin lander will deploy Astrolab's FLIP rover on the Moon. FLIP will demonstrate core components and subsystems used on the company's large-scale vehicle, the Flexible Logistics and Exploration (FLEX) rover, introduced in 2022.

"By joining Griffin Mission One, we will gather key insights into how lunar rovers like FLIP and FLEX operate in real lunar conditions," said Jaret Matthews, founder and CEO, Astrolab. "Bringing FLIP to the Moon offers an opportunity to demonstrate and test many of the critical technologies that will advance the commercial FLEX vehicle, including full-sized batteries, tires, critical avionics systems, sensors, and software."

In 2023, Astrolab announced an agreement with SpaceX to land the commercial FLEX rover on the Moon as soon as December 2026. SpaceX will transport FLEX to the lunar surface using its Starship launch and landing system, and Astrolab has agreed to a two-year launch window with SpaceX. The FLIP platform provides an opportunity not only to mature technologies for the core FLEX platform but also to enable the acquisition of critical science data prior to this commercial mission.

"Losing VIPER could've been a setback, but Astrobotic didn't let up. They rolled up their sleeves, found a new way forward, and made sure this mission stays on track. With Astrolab's FLIP rover onboard, we're showing the world that when challenges come our way, we double down," said John Fetterman, U.S. Senator for Pennsylvania.

"This is how we lead—not by playing it safe but by pushing forward with the technology that'll shape the future of exploration. I couldn't be prouder that Pennsylvania's Astrobotic is making sure America stays first in line to the lunar South Pole," Fetterman said.

Additional background on the FLIP rover

Last year, Astrolab, together with its partner Venturi Space, unveiled a development prototype of the FLIP rover at the 75th International Astronautical Congress in Milan, Italy. The rover is designed to respond to the growing number of institutional, businesses and scientific organizations in the U.S. and European markets, which are seeking access to the Moon for smaller payloads.

"FLIP offers customers many of the same payload space configurations as the larger FLEX rover we are using on our upcoming commercial mission, Mission One. This continues a goal we set for ourselves when we introduced the FLEX in 2022," said Matthews. "We want to set the standard for lunar logistics. Just as there are standard sizes of shipping containers used in intermodal shipping on Earth, we seek to do the same on the Moon."

FLIP has a mass of a nearly half a metric ton, a payload capacity of 30 kg, and has been designed to be compatible with medium-class lunar landers now entering the commercial space market. In addition, the rover offers customers opportunities to perform technology demonstrations and commercial exploration as well as gather valuable science data. It also features critical components, subsystems, and processes common to the core platform used by the FLEX rover.

As part of this mission, Astrolab intends to carry several payloads that will advance the company's understanding of the most effective ways to mitigate the risks that lunar dust poses to vehicles, structures, and spacecraft systems on the Moon's surface. Specifically, these payloads will test the effectiveness of protective coatings on various components of the FLIP rover, such as the solar array and radiator. They also will measure and quantify the rate of dust accumulation on surfaces. The company is also testing new dust sealing strategies on FLIP's wheel actuators.

In addition, Astrolab is evaluating the performance of critical technologies in the extreme temperatures and unique terrain found at the lunar South Pole. These tests will include demonstrating FLIP's hyper-deformable airless tires and batteries developed by Astroloab's partner, Venturi Space. The lessons learned from this mission will help identify risk mitigation strategies to be used in Astrolab's future commercial missions.

posted 10-24-2025 09:44 AM               

Griffin-1 Mission Update

Griffin-1 continues to gain momentum on the path to deliver Astrolab's FLIP (FLEX Lunar Innovation Platform) rover, Astrobotic's own CubeRover, and several additional payloads to the Moon. Read on for updates on integration, payloads, and software testing.

Propulsion Integration

Griffin-1's propulsion architecture centers around four high-performance Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel (COPV) propellant tanks engineered to be both lightweight and structurally robust, reliably containing substantial propellant loads at extreme operating pressures. Once the four propellant tanks are installed, final integration activities will be completed, and Griffin-1 will undergo environmental acceptance testing to ensure the lander will endure the challenging environments of launch, space, and the lunar surface.

Above: Astrobotic staff examine a propulsion tank sitting in front of Griffin-1's structure.

Avionics Ready for Launch

In-house designed avionics flight hardware has been assembled and accepted for flight. These systems form the backbone of Griffin's on-board control and telemetry, clearing a critical path toward spacecraft integration and ongoing system electrical testing. Designing, building, and testing our avionics systems in-house enables the team to accelerate the development cycle, allowing for low-cost, rapid iterations that reduce risks and enhance performance. Tighter control of this process also enables the team to design core products that are more easily adapted to future mission requirements, decreasing the cost and schedule for the next missions to space.

Above: Astrobotic's bespoke avionics box integrated with a lunar lander panel.

In tandem with flight-equivalent avionics, Astrobotic has implemented a fully closed-loop simulation of the descent and landing sequence. This system uses our custom LunaRay software to generate real-time images and 3D point clouds (dense sets of spatial data points that represent the shape and features of the lunar surface). These are processed by our Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN) and Hazard Detection & Avoidance (HDA) systems and are a vital step in validating our autonomous landing technologies for a GPS-denied environment.

Griffin-1 Manifest

Astrolab's FLIP (FLEX Lunar Innovation Platform) rover is undergoing developmental thermal vacuum testing, and core rover systems are integrated. Astrolab has individually tested key units and completed integrated functional testing of avionics, power, and telecommunications. In addition, we have completed mobility and egress testing using the FLIP test platform. Over the next several months, Astrolab will complete payload integration and vehicle-level protoqualification testing. The mission will demonstrate critical technologies—including telerobotic operations, lunar mobility, solar power generation, and thermal resilience—that form the foundation of Astrolab's larger FLEX rover. In addition to commercial and government payload operations, Astrolab will conduct key experiments in mobility, perception, dust characterization, guidance and navigation, and communication.

Above: Technicians work on Astrolab's FLIP lunar rover at the company's Hawthorne, Calif., facility. The rover, designed to deliver payloads to the Moon, is being assembled in preparation for launch on Astrobotic's Griffin-1 mission. (Astrolab)

BEACON's joint mission development with Astrobotic and Mission Control is well under way. A simulation has been completed on a Flatsat, a high-fidelity electrical copy of the rover used for testing. The rover has successfully connected and communicated with the Griffin lunar lander's Flatsat. This integrated simulation, which included CubeRover® operating with Mission Control's Spacefarer™ software, is helping finalize the rover's software ahead of its expected completion at the end of October.

All secondary payloads have been received and are undergoing final physical and functional checkouts on our Production FlatSat system, which supports end-to-end systems and software verification.

Above: Mission Control team members test BEACON. (Mission Control)

Above: Nippon Travel Agency (NTA)'s plaque is carefully integrated with one of Griffin-1's panels. The plaque is part of a project that sends messages collected from children in Japan to the Moon.

Above: Bruce Ha, inventor and founder of Nanofiche, holds a portion of the Galactic Library to Preserve Humanity (GLPH) as the team prepares it for integration with Griffin.

Above: Items from around the world will be sent to the Moon aboard this MoonBox capsule. An engineer places a piece of foam at the top of the capsule before it is sealed for integration aboard Griffin-1.

Structural Integration

Griffin's core structure is nearing full integration. Pressurant tanks, ramps, attitude control thrusters, and solar panels have all successfully undergone fit checks.

Above: Astrobots fit-check a pressurant tank with Griffin-1's primary structure.

Above: Griffin's propulsion infrastructure, including tubing, cabling, and harnessing, was primarily manufactured in-house. An Astrobot applies protective sheathing to the last 95% of flight harnessing that's being integrated to the Griffin-1 lander.

Looking Ahead

With engine qualification testing underway and critical systems coming online, Griffin-1 is advancing towards the Moon. Each milestone brings us closer to delivering payloads to the lunar surface, demonstrating precision landing, and advancing sustainable lunar infrastructure. The team is targeting the next viable launch window, which opens in July 2026. Stay tuned for more mission updates as we near completion of Griffin-1 for the Moon and beyond.