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“Google Lunar X Prize”
ispace Aims for Moon Landing on April 25
ispace Aims for Moon Landing on April 25

In two weeks, ispace will attempt to boldly go where no private company has landed before: the surface of the moon. The Japanese exploration company has set April 25, 2023, as the earliest landing date for its HAKUTO-R spacecraft.

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  • April 14, 2023
Israel, UAE Agree to Collaborate on Lunar, Earth Observation & Satellite Missions

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will collaborate on a mission to the moon, analyze data from an Israeli-French Earth observation satellite, and launch a joint education satellite under a landmark agreement signed last week to cooperate on a range of space projects, the Israel Space Agency (ISA) announced.

The two nations will collaborate on Genesis 2, an $100 million Israeli mission to launch an orbiter to the moon and deploy landers at two different locations on the lunar surface. The mission, which is to be half funded with foreign contributions, is scheduled to launch in 2024.

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  • October 25, 2021
Biden Appoints Ellen Stofan to Lead NASA Agency Review Team
Ellen Stofan (Credit: Smithsonian Institution)
  • Former astronaut Pam Melroy and Kathryn Sullivan also named to review teams
  • Former XPRIZE vice president leads OSTP team

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

President-elect Joe Biden has appointed former NASA chief scientist Ellen Stofan to lead the review team assigned to the space agency.

Stofan, a planetary scientist who became the first female director of the National Air and Space Museum in 2018, leads an eight-member team that includes former NASA astronaut Pam Melroy and former NASA chief scientist Waleed Abdalati.

Biden has also appointed Kathryn Sullivan, who was part of the first group of women recruited as NASA astronauts, to serve on the agency review team for the Department of Commerce.

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  • November 11, 2020
‘Major Takeaways from the 2019 Mining Space Summit

White Paper from the Luxembourg Space Agency focusses on opportunities for collaboration between terrestrial and space mining sectors

LUXEMBOURG (Luxembourg Space Agency PR) — On 9 October 2019, the second Mining Space Summit gathered more than 180 experts, from 24 countries, working in fields as diverse as oil & gas, terrestrial mining, space, finance, and government.

Held in Luxembourg, the goal of the Summit was to understand the technical and economic challenges facing the space resources industry and make recommendations for the future growth of this high technology sector.

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  • March 28, 2020
Orbit Beyond Ends NASA Contract to Land Spacecraft on Moon
Orbit Beyond of Edison, New Jersey, has proposed to fly as many as four payloads to a lava plain in one of the Moon’s craters. (Credit: Orbit Beyond)

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

Citing “internal corporate challenges”, Orbit Beyond has pulled out of a $97 million contract with NASA to land a spacecraft on the moon in July 2021.

“Orbit Beyond, Inc., has informed NASA of internal corporate challenges that will prevent the timely completion of its awarded task order,” the space agency said in a press release.

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  • July 30, 2019
PTScientists Files for Bankruptcy

PTScientists filed for bankruptcy on Friday, July 5, with the district court Berlin Charlottenburg. In a press release, the former Google Lunar X Prize competitor blamed unplanned delays in the acquisition of incentives and subsidies to support its planned mission to the moon. “Lawyer Sascha Feies has been appointed as provisional insolvency administrator,” the press release stated. “The business operations and research projects of the scientific enterprise continue to run […]

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  • July 10, 2019
XPRIZE Gives $1 Million Award to SpaceIL

Beresheet lander (Credit: SpaceIL)

YEHUD, Israel (XPRIZE PR) — XPRIZE will recognize SpaceIL’s achievement with a $1 million Moonshot Award for its successful entry into lunar orbit and for its attempt to land on the lunar surface – both of which are “firsts” for a privately-funded entity, marking a new era in space exploration.

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  • April 14, 2019
SpaceIL’s Beresheet Spacecraft Crashes on Moon

The first privately funded moon landing crashed onto the lunar surface on Thursday. SpaceIL’s Beresheet lander got about 10 km above the moon when it began experiencing a problem with its engine. Communications were lost and then controllers announced that the spacecraft had crashed. “If at first you don’t succeed, you try again,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who joined the SpaceIL team at the control center. The $100 […]

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  • April 11, 2019