Mission Summary
Griffin Mission One is Astrobotic’s planned second lunar flight, a far larger lander than its Peregrine craft, aimed at the Moon’s south pole. The mission was originally built to deliver NASA’s VIPER water-hunting rover, but after NASA cancelled VIPER in 2024, Astrobotic reconfigured Griffin to carry other payloads.
The lander is now slated to deliver a suite of payloads to the Nobile crater region near Mons Mouton, among them the FLIP rover from Venturi Astrolab and Astrobotic’s own small CubeRover. Launching on a Falcon Heavy, it is targeted for no earlier than mid-2026.
As a Commercial Lunar Payload Services mission, Griffin is meant to advance the private delivery of cargo to the lunar surface and to test landing in the resource-rich but difficult south polar terrain that NASA’s Artemis program hopes to explore. Its launch date has slipped before and may shift again as work continues.
Sources and notes can be found on the Sources page.
