Tag: XPRIZE
-
Israel’s Beresheet lander crashes on moon, ending privately funded space odyssey
A picture sent back to Earth from the Beresheet lander during its descent shows the moon’s cratered surface 22 kilometers (13.6 miles) below. In the foreground, a sign emblazoned with the Israeli flag is mounted to the spacecraft itself. (SpaceIL Photo / Twitter) An Israeli-built lander crashed onto the moon today during its final descent,…
-
12 years after her trip to space, Anousheh Ansari takes over as the CEO of XPRIZE
Anousheh Ansari, the newly named CEO of XPRIZE, comes on stage with co-founder Peter Diamandis at an XPRIZE Visioneering Summit in Los Angeles. (XPRIZE via Twitter) In 2004, Iranian-American entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari helped fund the $10 million Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight. In 2006, she traveled to the International Space Station, becoming the first…
-
ANA Holdings partners with Japan’s space agency on ‘Avatar X’ telepresence program
An artist’s conception shows the site plan for the Avatar X lab planned in Japan’s Oita prefecture. (Clouds Architecture Office) Telepresence robots on the moon and Mars? That’s the vision laid out for the partnership between ANA Holdings, the parent company of Japan’s All Nippon Airways, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The ANA-JAXA program,…
-
Want to sponsor a race to the moon? XPRIZE resurrects lunar landing challenge
Moon Express’ MX-1E settles on the lunar surface. (Moon Express Illustration) Less than a week after the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize officially expired, its organizers say they’re relaunching it as a non-cash competition to put a privately funded lander on the moon. They’re also looking for a new sponsor to lend its name,…
-
Moon ambitions get a reality check — plus a boost from Apollo moonshot memories
An artist’s conception shows Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lunar lander. (Blue Origin Illustration) Update for 10:54 a.m. PT Jan. 23: The managers of the Google Lunar X Prize competition acknowledge that the prize will go unwon. Previously: Who’s going to the moon? The prospects are looking dimmer for any commercial lunar landings in the short…
-
XPRIZE clears Japan’s Team Hakuto for moon mission with India’s Team Indus
Japan’s Team Hakuto is testing two small rovers known as Tetris (left foreground) and Moonraker (right background). The rovers would ride along with Team Indus’ spacecraft. (Team Hakuto Photo) The rocketeers on Japan’s Team Hakuto say they’ve gotten the Google Lunar XPRIZE’s seal of approval on its plans for a mission to the moon. The…