Astrobotic is a private American company specializing in space robotics and lunar missions. As a lunar logistics provider, they design and manufacture lunar landers like Peregrine and Griffin, capable of carrying payloads to the Moon's surface. Astrobotic works with NASA through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, as well as with other commercial and government partners, to facilitate space exploration and technology demonstration. The company aims to make space missions more accessible and affordable.
All verified mentions of this organization in source documents.
The Astrobotic agreement includes up to $1,400,000 in debtor-in-possession financing that can serve as a credit toward the asset purchase.
The stalking-horse agreement with Astrobotic sets a minimum price for the sale of Masten’s assets and allows Masten to seek higher bids through an auction process running through early September 2025.
In December 2020, NASA awarded contracts to four companies to transfer lunar regolith that those companies propose to acquire on future lander missions.
NASA postponed the launch of the VIPER mission by one year to perform additional testing on the Griffin lander that Astrobotic will use to deliver VIPER to the lunar south pole through CLPS.
NASA is adding $67,800,000 to the Astrobotic CLPS task order, bringing the award value to $320,400,000 with previous increases.
NASA awarded Astrobotic a CLPS task order in June 2020 originally valued at $199,500,000 to transport VIPER.
Astrobotic plans to launch the Peregrine lander as soon as late 2022 on the inaugural flight of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur.
VIPER did not complete its critical design review until October 2021, more than a year after the CLPS award to Astrobotic.
NASA and Astrobotic completed egress testing with prototypes of NASA’s VIPER rover and Astrobotic’s Griffin lunar lander on 2022-06-16.
Griffin is equipped with Astrobotic’s Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN) landing technology to support safe and precise landings.
When deployed on the lunar surface, Astrobotic’s wireless charging system would deliver power from an Astrobotic lunar lander or Vertical Solar Array Technology (VSAT) to power rovers, habitats, in-situ resource utilization plants, and other large surface infrastructure to survive the lunar night.
The testing that proved the wireless charging system can function through the 14-Earth-day lunar night was carried out by Astrobotic and co-authored with NASA Glenn Research Center on 2022-06-16.
Astrobotic scheduled a Preliminary Design Review for the wireless charging system in early July 2022 and is manufacturing a space-rated engineering model in tandem.
Astrobotic won two NASA SBIR Phase II contracts worth a combined $1,500,000.
NASA contracts for the Peregrine and Griffin landers enabled Astrobotic to grow from 18 employees three years before 2022 to nearly 180 employees in 2022.
Astrobotic received a $750,000 SBIR Phase II contract for its LiDAR-Inertial Navigation (ALIN) solution for rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking (RPOD).
Astrobotic won two NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II contracts worth a combined $1,500,000 to advance novel LiDAR software solutions.
Astrobotic received a $750,000 SBIR Phase II contract for its HazNet system.
Astrobotic unveiled its Peregrine lunar lander at an 2022-04-20 event in Pittsburgh.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson attended the 2022-04-20 event at Astrobotic’s Pittsburgh headquarters.