Moon Express

  • ​After a decade Google’s Lunar XPrize is set to end with no winner. An announcement from Google recently suggested the March 31st deadline would not be extended and a subsequent update from the XPrize team confirmed that no team will launch in time and the $30 million prize will remain unclaimed
  • ​The deadline for the Google Lunar XPrize has again been pushed back, this time to March 31, 2018. After over 10 years and multiple deadline extensions, it is hoped that this is the final delay for what has been an ambitious competition to get the first privately funded spacecraft onto the Moon.
  • ​The private race to the moon just kicked up a notch with Moon Express revealing in detail its plan to begin commercially harvesting moon rocks by 2020. The company is set to become the first commercial presence on the moon sending back lunar samples & establishing a permanent lunar outpost.
  • For the first time ever, a private company has been given permission to land on the moon. The authorization from the US Government means next year's planned lunar mission by Moon Express will not only be the first by a private company, but the first time a private company will leave Earth's orbit.
  • Having previously announced that it had signed a launch contract in pursuit of the Google Lunar XPRIZE, Moon Express has now received official verification of the contract from XPRIZE. It is the second team receive verification, after SpaceIL. The news kicks off a new space race.