MoonEx To Us SLC-36
Cape Canaveral SLC-36 Is Central to Moon Express’ Commercial Efforts to Reach the Moon
“Moon Express and Space Florida have signed an agreement that will lead to Moon Express spacecraft development and flight test operations at SLC-36 starting early this year. The agreement allows Moon Express and the state of Florida to make investments into the refurbishment of SLC-36, leading to a revitalized range and the immediate creation of 25-50 new jobs and potentially hundreds of direct and indirect new jobs over the next 5 years.”
So, they are using SLC-36 as office space, and not as a launch site, right?
it looks like MoonEx intends to do development work and also flight testing of their lunar lander there.
If they want to use SLC-36 for a launch site, they have to build it.
There is just grass & dirt there right now.
Yes, I noticed that all signs of a launch pad there have been completely erased (and there used to be two pads!).
Masten had plans to use LC-36 for test flights, plus they built out a control room and machine shop there. Space Florida put a small square pad in place for the Masten vertical launch/lander. I don’t think Masten still plans to operate there.
Who?
They’re a Google Lunar X-Prize contender.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wik…
http://www.moonexpress.com/…
They are building a lander (MX-1) that is carried as a secondary payload on a falcon 9 or equivalent. It uses a hydrogen peroxide engine with kerosene afterburner to fly to the Moon.
The MX-1 can also be used as a free flying orbital platform.
The plan flight testing mid-year with an xprize lunar landing in 2016.
The planned upgrade for slc-36:
http://www.spaceflightinsid…
http://rack.3.mshcdn.com/me…
http://images.gizmag.com/in…
http://images.gizmag.com/ga…
At least somebody in the US isn’t afraid to go to that big object in Earth’s sky that NASA falls all over itself not to talk about anymore…
I think we know how to land things on the moon. The first US soft landing was 49 years ago. Maybe it’s time to “really” do it again and stop “playing” space on the ground.
This must be all about “burning” up grant money.
Well it certainly couldn’t be about perfecting autonomous rocket powered landing technology and systems, such as those that Masten, NASA, and others are working on.
Moon Express is a commercial enterprise privately funded through equity investments. The company does not rely on government grants or contracts. Although we are proud of our partnership with NASA, we are a private venture, not a government venture.
Our use of SLC-36 is through a commercial lease agreement with Space Florida. There we will work to develop and test new commercial spacecraft capable of providing services beyond Earth orbit, to the Moon and beyond.
Before doing so we will be making investments into the refurbishment of the facility, which has lots of space for our test flights and still has buildings and infrastructure that is useable and repairable.
Here’s a video of our flight tests at the Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility last month: http://youtu.be/QAMPD65dvIY
We hope you’ll follow our efforts.