How do you top the world’s first private spaceship redefining the possible in accomplishing something only superpowers had done before?
The X Prize Foundation announced Jan. 24 that five of the 16 teams in the Google Lunar X Prize competition have verified launch contracts and can continue in the $20 million race to the moon.
A German team competing for the Google Lunar X Prize said Nov. 29 that it has signed a contract to launch its lander, carrying two rovers, by late 2017.
The organization running the Google Lunar X Prize said Sept. 27 it has no plans to extend an impending deadline for launch contracts that most teams are currently in danger of missing.
Astrobotic Technology, one of the leading teams competing for the Google Lunar X Prize, announced a new design of its lunar lander June 2 along with two new industry partners.
With its current flagship space competition set to end in less than two years, the X Prize Foundation is starting the planning for its next space-related challenge.
Astrobotic, a company competing for the Google Lunar X Prize, announced June 10 it had signed an agreement to carry a payload provided by Mexico’s space agency to the moon.
Astrobotic Technology and Team Hakuto, both competing in the Google Lunar X Prize competition announced plans to work together in an arrangement that could ultimately result in several teams sharing the prize purse.
The X Prize Foundation awarded more than $5 million in intermediate prizes to five teams competing in the Google Lunar X Prize competition Jan. 26, but those teams’ achievements varied widely, even in the same category of the competition.
Moon Express has signed an agreement to use a former launch site at Cape Canaveral for building and testing its lunar lander spacecraft.
The X Prize Foundation announced Dec. 16 that it was once again extending the deadline of a $30 million competition to land commercial spacecraft on the surface of the Moon.
With Mike Melvill at the controls, SpaceShipOne made history June 21, 2004, when it became the first privately developed and privately owned rocket to cross the edge of space.