Our Moonbox is manifested on Griffin Mission One
I got the official email from Astrobotic today:
Hello Lunar Pioneer,
Thank you for joining us in making history! Your decision to send a keepsake to the Moon with MoonBox™ is more than a gesture—it’s a leap into the future of space exploration. We’re thrilled to share someout-of-this-world news with you: your MoonBox™ is officially manifested on our next lunar mission, Griffin Mission One!
This monumental mission is set to carry your cherished keepsake to the Moon’s surface, and the countdown has already begun. We’ll soon be reaching out with important updates and next steps. Additionally, your exclusiveLaunch Day Kit will ship out in 2025, so stay tuned!
Your support fuels the dream of making space accessible to everyone.
We’re honored to have you as part of Griffin Mission One, and we can’t wait to share every step of this incredible journey to the lunar surface with you.
Thank you for being part of something extraordinary!
What does this mean?
Cautious optimism is in order.
A REMINDER OF HOW WE GOT HERE:
Our Writers on the Moon project was a time capsule to the moon. We had a manifest spot (payload) on Astrobotic’s first lunar lander, Peregrine Mission One. When our payload on Peregrine was lost, I immediately bought another payload spot on a future (unnamed) Astrobotic lunar mission, just to save a spot for us, just in case.
It was by no means clear that Astrobotic would have another mission. It still is not guaranteed.
WHERE WE ARE NOW IN THIS JOURNEY:
Griffin Mission One was always intended to be Peregrine’s Big Brother, the second mission that Astrobotic planned to send to the moon. It wasn’t always clear there would be a MoonBox on Griffin Mission One (our payload rides on the DHL MoonBox, one of many tiny payloads that get to ride along). Without getting into details, the payloads on GM-1 have, let’s say, changed over time.
What’s new: Astrobotic has decided that, no matter what else is happening, MoonBox will be on Griffin Mission One (in fact, they are apparently selling more payloads right now). This is good news — basically, IF Griffin Mission One launches, our payload will be on it.
That’s still a rather big IF for many reasons. So I’m trying to temper everyone’s expectations. The good news is that we have a spot on another named mission that ostensibly will fly sometime in the future, but neither the flight nor the timetable has any kind of guarantee. It’s possible that GM-1 will not be able to go for various reasons. But if it does, we’re going too.
So yay for that!
I’m guessing that Astrobotic will want us to deliver the payload to them in the new year, so I’ll get ready for that–I’ve got backups of everything, with the possible exception of the MoonChip (I need to dig around to see if I’ve got one). I’ll let you know when that ships (once again: no updates to the payload, it’s a time capsule, so we’re going with the same payload we had for Peregrine).
Keep your hopes in check, but this is a good thing. If they go, we go with them!
Sue