The story
Founded by John P. Thornton and Red Whittaker on Nov 2007.1
In 2007, the team declared its goal to be the first commercial operation to land on the Moon. That year, the company completed a running prototype of a spacecraft called Red Rover; they also renamed their concept lander from Artemis Lander to Griffin.
On July 28, 2008, NASA gave money to Astrobotic for a concept study on "regolith moving methods". The next year, Astrobotic began to receive Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding from NASA totaling over US$795,000 to investigate prospecting for lunar resources, which eventually led to a concept called Polar Excavator.
On October 15, 2010, NASA awarded a contract to Astrobotic for Innovative Lunar Demonstrations Data (ILDD) firm-fixed-price indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts with a total value up to US$30.1 million over up to five years, and in December 2010, NASA's US$500,000 ILDD project for further Lunar Demonstrations Data was awarded to Astrobotic.
Astrobotic's proposal "Technologies Enabling Exploration of Skylights, Lava Tubes, and Caves" was a Phase I selection for NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC). In April 2011, Astrobotic received a US$599,000 two-year contract to develop a scalable gravity offload device for testing rover mobility in simulated lunar gravity under NASA's Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTR).
In May 2012, David Gump left the position of President of Astrobotic and John Thornton took his place.
On April 30, 2014, NASA announced that Astrobotic Technology was one of the three companies selected for the Lunar CATALYST initiative. NASA was negotiating a 3-year no-funds-exchanged Space Act Agreement (SAA) where the Griffin lander may be involved. The CATALYST agreement was extended in October 2017 for 2 years.
On June 2, 2016, Astrobotic Technology announced a new design of its Griffin concept lander and named it Peregrine. Airbus Defence and Space signed a memorandum of understanding to provide engineering support for Astrobotic as it refines the lander's design. In December 2016, Astrobotic slipped their estimated launch date to 2019 and separated from the Google Lunar X Prize.
On November 29, 2018, Astrobotic was declared eligible to bid on NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services to deliver science and technology payloads to the Moon. Astrobotic's successful bid drew a US$79.5 million contract to deliver payloads to Lacus Mortis. Astrobotic set an initial target of 14 payloads to launch starting in July 2021.
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In September 2019, Spacebit signed an agreement to deliver the first UK lunar rover Asagumo on Astrobotic's upcoming mission in 2021 and named this "Spacebit mission one".
On September 25, 2019, John Thornton of Astrobotic was named CEO of the Year by the Pittsburgh Technology Council at the 23rd annual Tech50 awards ceremony.
On January 24, 2021, MrBeast, a YouTuber, said that he would place a payload on the Peregrine lander: a hard drive containing large numbers of digital image files submitted by anyone who contributed US$10 via his online store.
In June 2021, the maiden flight of Vulcan Centaur, carrying the first Peregrine lander as its payload, was delayed to 2022 due to payload and engine testing delays.
In November 2021, Astrobotic Technology was named one of the "World's Best Employers in the Space Industry" by Everything Space, a recruitment platform specializing in the space industry.
In September 2022, Astrobotic acquired Masten Space Systems, which had gone into Chapter 11 bankruptcy two months earlier. Masten was assigned to be "Astrobotic's Propulsion and Test Department". Among its assets is the Broadsword 110 kN 3D-printed aluminum engine, which continues to be developed.
Problems with ground systems during the wet dress rehearsal on December 8, 2023, delayed the maiden flight of the Vulcan Centaur until 2024.
The Peregrine lander was launched on January 8, 2024, from Florida's Space Force Station LC-41, aboard the maiden flight of Vulcan Centaur. A propellant leak prevented it from reaching the Moon for a soft or hard landing. The mission was never able to leave its original (highly elliptical) Earth orbit and it ended with a controlled reentry into the Earth's atmosphere above the Pacific Ocean on January 18, 2024.
In 2024, the company announced its ‘Luna Grid’ service. By combining the company’s landers and rovers equipped with its Vertical Array Solar Panels, the company hopes to be able to provide sustainable power on the lunar surface.
In June 2026, it was announced that Voyager Technologies was to acquire Astrobotic.
From Wikipedia’s article on Astrobotic Technology, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7