The VIPER team has been continuing to press forward on all fronts as we now look toward our next major milestone in the fall: critical design review, or CDR. This is where a flight project demonstrates to an independent review team that it has completed the design of the VIPER system and the means to execute the mission. There is still much work going forward after the CDR, but the CDR is where the design is complete, and our focus changes to building and testing of our VIPER system.
The VIPER team also continues to work closely with our Commercial Lunar Payload Service, or CLPS, vendor, Astrobotic. Recall that Astrobotic is the commercial provider tasked with delivering VIPER to the Moon. As you might imagine, there is an extraordinary amount of planning required to get the VIPER rover, Astrobotic lander, and SpaceX Falcon-Heavy vehicle to all work cohesively as a single space system. VIPER has a dedicated team working this specific topic in order to help assure a successful mission.
More to come!
– Dan Andrews, VIPER project manager