PASADENA, Oct. 15 -- A lander built to carry what NASA says would be the largest commercial payload ever delivered to the Moon has been spun, shaken, deafened, baked and frozen, and NASA says it passed. What the agency has not said is when it flies beyond "later this year."

Voyager Technologies' Griffin-1 has finished environmental testing at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the agency announced on October 13. The 2,789-pound (1,265-kilogram) spacecraft is slated to land in Nobile Crater near the lunar south pole and deliver more than 1,100 pounds (455 kilograms) of cargo, which makes it what NASA calls an infrastructure-class lander.

Its manifest is the reason for the care. Griffin-1 carries 10 science and technology demonstrations fr...