WASHINGTON — Blue Origin was the sole bidder for a NASA task order that revived a canceled lunar rover mission.

NASA announced Sept. 19 it had selected Blue Origin to deliver the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER , to the moon’s south polar region in late 2027. The rover will fly on the second mission of Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 lander.

The award came through NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, program. Many were surprised because NASA had previously awarded a CLPS task order to Astrobotic to deliver VIPER on its Griffin lander. The agency kept that task order when it canceled VIPER in July 2024, citing cost and schedule overruns.

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