PITTSBURGH — As Astrobotic finalizes assembly on its massive Griffin-1 lunar lander, a small but deeply important piece of TLP history has officially secured its ride to the stars.
Our first private payload, LunEx-1, has been safely loaded into the spacecraft’s “Moonbox” compartment ahead of its late 2026 launch to the Moon.
While Griffin-1 (designated by NASA as Moon Base II) is built to haul massive infrastructure like rovers and power grids, the Moonbox provides a unique opportunity for private citizens to establish a footprint on the lunar surface.
“For decades, reaching the Moon was a privilege reserved exclusively for massive government agencies. Then we watched the baton pass to private commercial companies. Now, with LunEx-1, we are witnessing the third great shift: space opening up to the everyday person. By carrying the names, photos, and stories of our TLP community directly to the lunar surface, we are proving that space no longer belongs to the few—it belongs to all of us, because space truly is better together.”
— Zachary Aubert, TLP CEO
| LUNEX-1 MANIFEST: |
|---|
| ✔️ Nano SD Card |
| ✔️ TLP Community Archive: Hundreds of names, photos, and videos |
| ✔️ Curated historical media |
| ✔️ “Letter to the Future” by TLP CEO Zachary Aubert |
A Digital Legacy on the Moon
At the heart of the LunEx-1 payload is a specially prepared nano SD card acting as a digital time capsule. It contains hundreds of names, photographs, and video submissions from the global TLP community, capturing a distinct snapshot of human life and space enthusiasm in 2024-2025 when all was collected.
In addition to community files, the drive includes a curated collection of photos and videos documenting major cultural and historical events that TLP deemed essential to preserve beyond Earth’s orbit. Capping off the digital archive is an official “Letter to the Future” penned by Zachary Aubert, CEO of TLP.
On a personal level, it’s a bittersweet milestone. This was the last major initiative I shared with my grandfather, Bruce L Aubert, before he passed away last year. The fact that LunEx-1 will carry a piece of his spirit to the Moon is an honor I can’t fully put into words.”
— Zachary Aubert, TLP CEO
The First of Many Beyond Earth
The integration of LunEx-1 marks TLP’s first-ever official space mission, but the company is already looking far beyond Griffin-1’s late 2026 mission to the Moon.
TLP has revealed that early planning is already underway for LunEx-2, a follow-up lunar archive effort, as well as MarEx-1, a highly ambitious future concept aimed at sending a community time capsule to the surface of Mars.
For now, LunEx-1 sits safely inside the belly of Griffin-1 in Pittsburgh, waiting to head to California next week for environmental testing before its final trip on Earth to the launchpad at Cape Canaveral.
