Lunar Trailblazer, a SIMPLEx mission originally set to launch as a rideshare on the IMAP mission in 2025, was moved by NASA to fly on the Intuitive Machines IM-2 lunar lander currently planned for late 2023.
Lockheed Martin developed the Curio spacecraft bus for NASA’s Janus and Lunar Trailblazer smallsat missions.
Lockheed Martin determined that Lunar Trailblazer required additional engineering and design work, and NASA proceeded with the mission at a revised cost of $72 million, more than 30% over its original cost cap.
NASA selected three SIMPLEx missions for development in 2019—Janus, Lunar Trailblazer, and EscaPADE—each with a $55,000,000 cost cap.
NASA’s change in launch assignment for Lunar Trailblazer and technical issues with the spacecraft increased its cost to $72,000,000.
The SIMPLEx awards NASA made in 2019 for Janus, EscaPADE, and Lunar Trailblazer had cost caps of $55,000,000.
Lunar Trailblazer was one of three missions selected in 2019 for NASA’s Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration (SIMPLEx) program alongside Janus and EscaPADE.
NASA revised the overall cost estimate for Lunar Trailblazer to $72 million, a figure that includes previously agreed-to changes to the mission’s implementation such as spacecraft vendor, launch provider, and launch date.
With a revised cost of $72 million, Lunar Trailblazer is more than 30% over the SIMPLEx $55,000,000 cost cap.
NASA decided on 2022-11-09 to continue the Lunar Trailblazer mission for launch in mid-2023 despite exceeding its cost cap by more than 30%.
Lunar Trailblazer will launch in mid-2023 as a secondary payload on a Falcon 9 launching the IM-2 lunar lander by Intuitive Machines.
The Lunar Trailblazer mission selected Lockheed Martin as the spacecraft subcontractor in July 2020 after the original spacecraft partner ran into design and cost challenges.
Lunar Trailblazer was one of three missions NASA selected in 2019 under the Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration (SIMPLEx) program.
Ball Aerospace was listed as the original spacecraft subcontractor for Lunar Trailblazer when NASA selected the mission in 2019.
NASA originally planned to launch Lunar Trailblazer as a rideshare on the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission, but IMAP delays pushed that launch into 2025.
NASA stated in June that it will instead launch Lunar Trailblazer as a secondary payload on the second Intuitive Machines lunar lander mission scheduled for mid-2023.
Lunar Trailblazer is scheduled to launch in mid-2023 to characterize water ice deposits on the Moon.
The Lunar Trailblazer project team is working with Lockheed Martin to develop a go-forward plan to understand cost to complete and to balance cost, risk, and science return.
NASA’s Lunar Discovery and Exploration Program decided to accommodate the additional cost of launching Lunar Trailblazer on IM-2 rather than keeping it on IMAP.
Lunar Trailblazer was expected to be completed by early 2023.