{"id":307876,"date":"2026-10-16T11:06:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T11:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/307876\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T11:06:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T11:06:24","slug":"pittsburghs-griffin-1-lunar-lander-passes-testing-plans-to-launch-later-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/307876\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh\u2019s Griffin-1 lunar lander passes testing, plans to launch later this year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Voyager Technologies announced that its Griffin-1 lunar lander, assembled in Pittsburgh, has successfully completed acceptance testing, marking a major milestone ahead of a planned launch to the Moon later this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">The spacecraft was developed through NASA\u2019s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative and is part of Moon Base Phase I objectives. The mission will carry 10 payloads from six countries to the lunar South Pole, including equipment from NASA, the European Space Agency and commercial partners.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Acceptance testing verified the performance of Griffin-1\u2019s systems and confirmed its readiness for the upcoming launch preparation phase. Following the completion of testing, the lander is being returned to Voyager\u2019s Lunar Systems headquarters in Pittsburgh. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\"> \u201cGriffin-1 marks a turning point for commercial lunar infrastructure,\u201d said Dylan Taylor, the chairman and chief executive officer of Voyager. \u201cWe are an enabler in building the transportation layer for the lunar economy: the logistics, access and systems that make sustained operations on the Moon possible. When Griffin touches down, it will be the largest commercial payload delivery in lunar history. The team has put years of work into this mission and we are focused on getting Griffin to the Moon and putting that capability to work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">The spacecraft is designed to support a range of future lunar operations, including the delivery of rovers, scientific instruments and other infrastructure. Its capabilities are intended to help lay the groundwork for future lunar infrastructure, including power systems designed to support a long-term human presence on the Moon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Following final preparations at Voyager\u2019s headquarters in Pittsburgh, the Griffin-1 lander will be shipped to Cape Canaveral, Fla., ahead of its targeted launch in late 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Download the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/mobile-apps\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FREE WPXI News app<\/a> for breaking news alerts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Follow Channel 11 News on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wpxi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WPXI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>. | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch WPXI NOW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>TOP STORIES FROM CHANNEL 11 NEWS <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph body-copyright\">\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Voyager Technologies announced that its Griffin-1 lunar lander, assembled in Pittsburgh, has successfully completed acceptance testing, marking a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[126217,95938,126218,30949,73,75,74,104499],"class_list":["post-307876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-commercial-lunar-payload-services","tag-griffin-1-lunar-lander","tag-moon-base-phase-i","tag-nasa","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-voyager-technologies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}