NASA
- NASA has canceled its VIPER moon rover project.
- NASA will still send a spacecraft to the moon and pay a company $323 million for the trip.
- VIPER was supposed to explore the south side of the moon in search of ice.
NASA is scrapping a moon rover it spent $450 million to construct, and axing the machine's mission to find water on the moon.
The agency discontinued the development of VIPER — or Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover — because it proved exceedingly expensive.
NASA's statement on Wednesday said that the rover was to be scrapped because of "cost increases, delays to the launch date, and the risks of future cost growth."
It also said that continuing the rover project would result in an "increased cost that threatens cancellation or disruption" to other lunar research missions.
The rover, a car-sized robot that was supposed to explore the south side of the moon in search of "ice and other potential resources," has already been built, The New York Times reported.
However, tests to ensure that it could survive the shaking of the spacecraft and the environment of space have not yet been conducted.
According to the Times, the agency would save at least $84 million by not conducting the testing and not having to operate the rover on the moon.
VIPER's launch, which was scheduled for fall 2025, had already been delayed multiple times.
It was initially set to launch in late 2023. However, that launch was delayed to 2024 to allow more time to test the privately commissioned spacecraft Griffin, which was supposed to carry the rover to the moon.
Although the rover itself has been scrapped, the Griffin Lander will continue with its journey.
And NASA will still pay the company that built the spacecraft — the Astrobotic Technology Inc. of Pittsburgh — $323 million for the task, per the Times.
Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration in the science directorate, told The Times that Griffin's landing would still be valuable even without the rover on board.
NASA maintains that it is "committed to studying and exploring the Moon for the benefit of humanity."
"The agency has an array of missions planned to look for ice and other resources on the Moon over the next five years," Nicola Fox, an associate administrator in the agency's science mission directorate, said in a statement.
The statement also added that any US industry and international companies that wish to use VIPER before it is disassembled could contact the agency after July 18.
News of the rover's scrapping comes as two NASA astronauts remain stuck in space after issues were detected with the spacecraft they went up in — the Boeing Starliner.
The duo — Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore — arrived at the International Space Station via the Boeing Starliner on June 6 after a series of delays that postponed the craft's launch by a month.
While they were supposed to stay for only eight to 10 days, they have been stuck on the space station for over a month now, with no return date scheduled.
Representatives for NASA did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.