Yesterday, Google Lunar X Prize competitor Moon Express announced that it has received approval for what will be the first purely commercial mission to go beyond Earth’s immediate orbit. If all goes according to plan, and that is a pretty big if considering the variables involved, ME’s MX-1 lander will launch out of New Zealand […]
There is an interesting trend developing with the $20 million dollar Google Lunar XPrize. Earlier this year, Pittsburgh, PA. based Astrobotics, which hopes to develop regular deliver service to the Moon, announced that it has signed an agreement with the sole Japanese entry, Team Hakuto, to transport that team’s twin rovers to the Moon along […]
Mexico is set to become the first Latin American country to send a payload to the Lunar surface, courtesy of Google Lunar XPrize competitor Astrobotic. Although just a beginning, the agreement described in the press release below is an encouraging sign for other companies such as Bigelow Aerospace which are building business plans based on […]
April 15th, 2015 will mark the fifth anniversary of one of the most significant, and controversial policy changes in the history of the U.S. space program, the decision to cancel Project Constellation and NASA’s planned return to the Moon. Now, according to a story by veteran reporter Eric Berger in the Houston Chronicle, with less […]
Setting Up Shop / Image Credit Moon Express Florida Today reports that Moon Express has signed a deal with Space Florida for partial use of historic Launch Complex 36 in order to test engines and hardware for what will ultimately become its MX-1 Lunar Lander. From the story: “Moon Express is the first entrepreneurial “new […]
Morpheus : Image Credit NASA Bit by bit, NASA’s vision of the Kennedy Space Center as a 21st century spaceport is taking shape, offering an interesting mix of public and private spaceflight. And bit by bit, the spaceport which launched mankind to the Moon, is helping to send machines back. As Florida Today reports, as […]
Griffin Lander: Astrobotic Technology Inc. All those artifacts the United States left on the Moon are soon going to have company, perhaps a great deal of it. Just over a year ago, Moon Express held a gala event in Las Vegas to unveil its MX-1 Commercial Lunar Lander, the centerpiece of its effort to compete […]
China’s Jade Rabbit may have company yet. After a slow start which saw many of the teams stymied by the multiple challenges of putting together a credible entry in the Google Lunar X-Prize contest. GLXP altered the rules last year to allow for the insertion of milestone prizes totaling $6 million aimed at helping leading […]
NASA’s LADEE, Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer mission stands poised for liftoff aboard an Orbital Sciences Minotaur V launch vehicle from pad 0B at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at 11:27 p.m. EDT this evening. With the near midnight flight expected to be visible from much of the U.S. East Coast, it is likely to […]
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