NASA Cancels Historic Moon Mission

NASA has canceled a historic space mission valued at $600 million, which involved sending a rover to the unexplored south pole of the moon in search of valuable natural resources. The VIPER mission was scheduled for launch late next year, but NASA suspended the program last Wednesday, citing manufacturing issues and rising costs. Nikki Fox, the assistant administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, stated, "Such decisions are never easy, but in this case, the remaining expected expenses for VIPER would have led to the need to either cancel or delay many other missions." Experts revealed that the original launch date for the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration vehicle was set for December 2023. The plan was for VIPER to spend about 100 days collecting data to map potential water sources on the moon, which would exist in the form of ice.