14 DAY TRIAL // The new lander NASA is developing for landing cargo on the Moon arrived at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), in Florida, around a week ago, and has already begun a three-month test period. The vehicle needs to be capable of flying and landing all on its own.
The spacecraft spent the last year in Houston, Texas, at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC), where it was extensively tested. However, all flights that occurred at this facility were tethered. The vehicle was moved to the KSC so that it could conduct free-flight tests.
“We completed the fundamental testing needed to characterize vehicle performance while tethered at JSC. Now it’s time to move on to the next phase of the project where we fly the vehicle autonomously in free flight,”Morpheus Project Manager, Dr. Jon Olansen, explains, quoted by Space Fellowship.
Project Morpheus is being developed under the NASA Advanced Exploration Systems program, which is managed by the agency's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, in Washington, DC.