A Moon lander faces hot and cold

1A spacecraft needs to survive more than a long trip. Launch can shake it, loud noise can affect it, and space can be extremely hot or cold. Engineers test spacecraft on Earth to prepare for these conditions.

2NASA reported on 13 October 2026 that Voyager Technologies’ Griffin-1 lunar lander had passed a series of tests at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. The lander is intended for a future Moon mission. Passing a test is not the same as landing on the Moon.

3A special table shook the spacecraft in three directions. Sensors recorded what happened. In another test, large horns produced very loud sound to copy the noise of launch. Engineers also checked that electronic signals did not interfere with one another.

4The final stage used a large chamber with very little air. For about two weeks, the lander experienced temperatures up to 75 degrees Celsius and down to minus 100. This helped test conditions expected in space and on the lunar surface. The archive photograph here shows the Moon in 1968. It is background, not a picture of Griffin-1. The news concerns preparation in a laboratory, not a completed lunar flight.