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Science|NASA Gave Up a Ride to the Moon. This Startup’s Rover Took It.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/science/nasa-moon-rover-astrolab-astrobotic.html
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After the space agency canceled its VIPER rover, an empty space was available on a private spacecraft that will still head to the lunar surface.
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Feb. 5, 2025Updated 10:25 a.m. ET
NASA’s second thoughts about VIPER opened an opportunity for someone else to book that ride to the moon. Just because its cargo was canceled did not mean Astrobotic’s journey was off — it remains scheduled for later this year. And on Wednesday, a small startup named Venturi Astrolab Inc. announced it had claimed that opportunity to accelerate its own lunar rover plans.
“We’re excited to get actual wheels in the dirt this year and see how all our tech performs,” Jaret Matthews, the chief executive of Astrolab, said in an interview. (Despite the similar names, the two companies are unrelated.)
