LOS ANGELES, August 16, 2017 (XPRIZE PR) – Today, XPRIZE and Google announce that $4.75M in additional Milestone Prize money will be available to Google Lunar XPRIZE finalist teams for achieving technological milestones along the way to the Moon.
Additionally, XPRIZE established a mission completion deadline of March 31, 2018, regardless of the initiation date, in order for teams to win the Grand or Second-Place Prizes.
SpaceIL lander (Credit: SpaceIL)
It looks as if Team SpaceIL is out of the $30 million Google Lunar XPrize.
Quartz reports the Israeli team will not be able to launch its lander/rover to the moon aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster until some time next year — too late to meet the end-of-2017 deadline required to win the prize.
After 10 years, the Google Lunar X Prize is down to five finalists. The survivors include: Hakuto (Japan) Moon Express (USA) SpaceIL (Israel) Synergy Moon (International) Team Indus (India) The teams have until the end of this year to launch a vehicle to the moon. The vehicle must travel 500 meters across the lunar surface and return high-definition video. There is a $20 million prize for the first team to […]
Donald Trump (Credit: Michael Vadon)
It’s going to be busy year in space in 2017. Here’s a look at what we can expect over the next 12 months.
A New Direction for NASA?
NASA’s focus under the Obama Administration has been to try to commercialize Earth orbit while creating a foundation that would allow the space agency to send astronauts to Mars in the 2030’s.
Whether Mars will remain a priority under the incoming Trump Administration remains to be seen. There is a possibility Trump will refocus the space agency on lunar missions instead.
Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK), who is currently viewed as a leading candidate for NASA administrator, has written two blog posts focused on the importance of exploring the moon and developing its resources. Of course, whether Bridenstine will get NASA’s top job is unclear at this time.
Peregrine lunar lander (Credit: Astrobotic)
Astrobotic CEO John Thornton, whose company announced its withdrawal for the Google Lunar X Prize, doesn’t have a lot of hope that anyone will win the $30 million competition next year.
Peregrine lunar lander (Credit: Astrobotic)
Astrobotic has pulled out of the Google Lunar X Prize, according to an update on the Space Angels Network website.
As a former XPRIZE contender, Astrobotic was the only team to win all three of the competition’s Milestone Prizes, which brought the company $1.75 million in prize money. Astrobotic is now poised for further success: Their Peregrine Lander will carry customer payloads to the Moon’s surface in 2019, including the rovers of three other GLXP competitors. These initial customers, who have had an opportunity to evaluate all potential service providers, have said that Astrobotic is “years ahead of the competition.”
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TeamIndus, the only Indian team in the Google Lunar X Prize (GLXP), has announced a contract with the ISRO space agency to fly its lunar rover aboard a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) next year. The team is hoping to win the $20 million first prize for the first privately-built rover on the moon. The vehicle will need to travel 500 meters across the surface and beam back high-definition video […]
Interorbital launch at FAR. (Credit: Interorbital Systems)
MOJAVE, Calif. (Interorbital PR) — At 12:15 on March 29, 2014, Interorbital Systems’ Common Propulsion Module Test Vehicle (CPM TV) thundered off its mobile launch unit on its maiden flight. The rocket’s 7,500-lb thrust engine performed flawlessly propelling the 1200-lb rocket to Mach 1+ within seconds over the FAR Launch Area. The 30-foot long CPM TV rocket is a boiler-plate test version of the identical rocket units that will make up Interorbital’s modular orbital launch systems.
California-based Interorbital Systems plans to launch its Neptune 1000 rocket from the island of ‘Eua at the southeast end of the Tonga island chain in the South Pacific.
Report on the Google Lunar X Prize with information about Frednet and Synergy Moon.
