iSpace rover model. Credit: SpaceRef Marc’s note: On Wednesday Japan and Luxembourg announced an agreement “to cooperate on exploration and commercial utilization of space resources.” While this news is noteworthy, there is other news out of Japan today. iSpace, a New Space company with ambitions to use the moons resources and which manages the Japanese Google Lunar X Prize entry, Hakuto, is set to announce on December 13 what it says “is […]

Israeli Google Lunar XPrize Team is First to Sign Launch Agreement for Private Mission to the Moon on SpaceX Falcon 9 “At a press conference held in Jerusalem today, alongside Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, and Bob Weiss, vice chairman and president of XPRIZE, SpaceIL announced a significant milestone in its race to the moon: securing a “ticket to the moon” on a SpaceX Falcon 9 launcher, with a mission scheduled […]

Moon Express Launch Contract to be Verified by Google Lunar XPRIZE, SpaceRef Business “Yesterday Moon Express became the first Google Lunar X PRIZE participant to sign a launch contract with a launch service provider, albeit one who has yet to launch a rocket.” “The contract with Rocket Lab, a New Zealand startup based in Los Angeles but with a launch site in New Zealand, still needs to be verified by […]

Google Lunar XPrize Makes $5.25 Million in Awards, Google Lunar XPrize “The deadline for the Google Lunar XPRIZE was officially extended until December 31, 2016. As part of this revised timeline, at least one team must provide documentation of a scheduled launch by December 31, 2015 for all teams to move forward in the competition.” Join us for an exclusive live chat with Google Lunar XPrize teams!, CNet “These five […]

Astrobotic Wins Google Lunar X Prize Milestones and Competition Deadline Extended to End of 2016, SpaceRef Business “Today the Google Lunar X Prize announced that the deadline for the competition deadline had been extended again, this time to the end of 2016. Also announced today were two milestone prizes being won by Astrobotic.”

Recognizing Giant Leaps: Google Lunar XPRIZE Establishes Milestone Prizes, Alex Hall, Space.com “Two years ago, XPRIZE began a dialogue with teams to better understand the challenges that they were facing and to determine what steps we might take to better nurture and support this prize ecosystem. As a result, we determined that we needed to find a way to recognize and support the teams that were making substantial technical progress […]

Summary of Rules and Requirements, Google Lunar X Prize “The competition’s grand prize is worth $20 million. To provide an extra incentive for teams to work quickly, the grand prize value will change to $15 million whenever a government-funded mission successfully explores the lunar surface, currently projected to occur in 2013.” China sets course for lunar landing this year, CNN “China set a bold new course in its ambitious space […]

Dramatic Changes to Google Lunar X Prize Cash Prizes Under Consideration, SpaceRef Business “The plans laid out in this draft document embody a radical departure from the current approach to awarding prizes i.e. one winner, one big prize with several smaller runner-up prizes. Now, multiple teams will be able to get even smaller cash prizes for efforts already completed or near completion – but far short of actually sending a […]

Summary of Rules and Requirements, Google Lunar X Prize “The competition’s grand prize is worth $20 million. To provide an extra incentive for teams to work quickly, the grand prize value will change to $15 million whenever a government-funded mission successfully explores the lunar surface, currently projected to occur in 2013.” China’s Chang’e-3 to land on moon next year, China Daily “Ma said the Chang’e-3 would probe and explore the […]

Google Lunar X PRIZE Announces Official Roster of Teams Competing in the $30 Million Race to the Moon (With video), X Prize Foundation “Today, the X PRIZE Foundation announced the official roster of 29 registered teams competing for the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE, an unprecedented competition to send a robot to the Moon that travels at least 500 meters and transmit video, images, and data back to the […]