The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) canceled the VIPER program, which it developed by spending millions of dollars. NASA announced that the VIPER exploration vehicle, which was planned to land on the Moon surface, was canceled with the decision taken today, and stated that the reason was costs.
NASA canceled the VIPER program due to high costs!
NASA, which has been working on the VIPER exploration vehicle, which was developed for a while to land on the Moon’s surface, was planning to investigate the ice deposits on the Moon. NASA, which first announced the VIPER program in 2019 and later postponed it to late 2022, recently announced that the launch would be at the end of 2024. However, the work never came to an end. Today, NASA canceled the project due to costs.
The institution, which has spent 450 million dollars to develop the VIPER reconnaissance vehicle so far, stated that increasing costs prevent the progress of the project. Announcing the decision to cancel the project today, NASA stated that they saved 84 million dollars with this decision and stated that VIPER will be disassembled and sold or reused.
Stating that the cancellation decision was entirely due to budget reasons, NASA administrator Nicola Fox explained that this decision had nothing to do with the research team or the success of the program. NASA, which has a budget of 2 percent less than last year, does not plan to continue the VIPER program, even though it still has a budget of 24 billion 875 million dollars.
If it were completed, the VIPER rover, which would be sent to the Moon at the end of 2024 or mid-2025, would stay there for 100 days. The team, which will investigate ice deposits on the Moon during this period, postpones the Moon journey to an unknown date due to the cancellation of the project. How do you evaluate NASA’s decision? You can express your ideas in the comments.
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