Quick Answer
Valkyrie (R5) is NASA Johnson’s disaster-and-space research humanoid from the DARPA Robotics Challenge era. NASA does not sell it. Scoring it 9.0 as if it were a commercial humanoid was the May 2025 stencil, not a review.
Our Verdict
| Field | Rating | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Overall Review Score | 5.5 / 10 | Buyer score. 7.1 as a published NASA research record. |
| Research usefulness | 7.1 / 10 | Open ROS-era papers and DRC footage exist. |
| Commercial readiness | 0 / 10 | Not sold commercially. |
| Consumer readiness | 0 / 10 | |
| Autonomy confidence | Supervised research autonomy | DRC tasks, not a job description. |
| Best for | Space-robotics history and NASA R5 context | |
| Biggest concern | Pages that still imply you can PO one |
What it is
A full-size NASA biped. Public figures that show up consistently: about 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in), about 129 kg (300 lb is also reported), 44 degrees of freedom, roughly one hour of autonomous operation on a reported 1.8 kWh pack. Those are research-platform numbers, not a catalog.
What is published
NASA and academic DRC write-ups, ROS-style stack notes, and a lot of video of a heavy robot doing disaster-proxy tasks. There is no price, no support contract, and no current NASA store listing.
Flaws
Mass and power. An hour of runtime on a 129 kg machine is a research constraint, not a factory plan. Hands and recovery after a fall were never a product story. Our old page compared it to Optimus and Figure 02. That comparison is category error.
Real-world usefulness
Useful as a record of what a US government lab actually fielded. Useless as a 2026 purchase. If you want a living NASA-adjacent conversation, it is still research, not procurement.
Full specs and images
Valkyrie profile · Atlas review · All humanoid reviews.
FAQ
Can I buy Valkyrie?
No. NASA does not sell R5.
Is Valkyrie still NASA’s current humanoid program?
Public work continued in labs after the DRC. It is not a product line.
Who made it?
NASA. Not Boston Dynamics, not a vendor store.
Sources
NASA R5 / Valkyrie public pages and DARPA Robotics Challenge reporting.