{"id":18338,"date":"2018-10-01T20:16:40","date_gmt":"2018-10-01T12:16:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/moon-express-brings-in-12-5m-in-backing-for-its-lunar-lander-and-florida-facilities\/"},"modified":"2018-10-01T20:16:40","modified_gmt":"2018-10-01T12:16:40","slug":"moon-express-brings-in-12-5m-in-backing-for-its-lunar-lander-and-florida-facilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/moon-express-brings-in-12-5m-in-backing-for-its-lunar-lander-and-florida-facilities\/","title":{"rendered":"Moon Express brings in $12.5M in backing for its lunar lander and Florida facilities"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_422260\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-422260\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-422260\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Moon-Express_MX-1E_TLI-630x354.jpg\" alt=\"Moon Express lander\" width=\"630\" height=\"354\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Moon-Express_MX-1E_TLI-630x354.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Moon-Express_MX-1E_TLI-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Moon-Express_MX-1E_TLI-1260x709.jpg 1260w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-422260\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist\u2019s conception shows Moon Express\u2019 MX-1E spacecraft making its approach to the moon. (Moon Express Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Moon Express, which aims to start missions to the moon within the next couple of years, says it has raised $2.5 million in bridge financing and has begun a $20 million Series B financing round, anchored by a $10 million lead investor.<\/p>\n<p>Proceeds will go toward building out facilities in Cape Canaveral, Fla., and developing the spacecraft for its commercial lunar flight program, the company said today in a news release.<\/p>\n<p>Since its founding in 2010, Moon Express has been working on a space transport system that\u2019s been called a \u201cFedEx for space.\u201d The company, which has Seattle-area entrepreneur Naveen Jain as its co-founder and executive chairman, was a competitor for the Google Lunar X Prize. Although the prize went unwon, Moon Express is continuing to work on a series of spacecraft for trips to the moon and other off-Earth destinations with backing from NASA\u2019s Lunar CATALYST program.<\/p>\n<p>Moon Express\u2019 co-founder and CEO, Bob Richards, announced the new financing at The World Innovation Network Global Summit in Chicago.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are at the dawn of an exciting new era of lunar exploration and development,\u201d Richards said. \u201cWe\u2019re excited about the new U.S. space policy to return to the moon in a sustainable way with commercial partners, and we look forward to working with NASA and other space agencies in exploring Earth\u2019s eighth continent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Naveen Jain, founder and chairman, Moon Express, on moonshots | Code 2018\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IhBXCBFTZCQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Miami-based Minerva Capital Group led the $2.5 million bridge round and is supporting the $20 million Series B round.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMoon Express has a unique and well-thought-out economic model that we think is compelling,\u201d said Jocelyn Cortez-Young, Minerva managing partner and founder. \u201cWe support visionary entrepreneurs and companies pursuing transformative innovation toward a social good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Moon Express is among more than two dozen companies that have voiced interest in NASA\u2019s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, which is aimed at buying rides for payloads on commercial lunar landers. Two companies headquartered in the Seattle area, Blue Origin and Spaceflight Industries, are also on the list. NASA is expected to select its first vendors by the end of this year.<\/p>\n<p>The start of Moon Express\u2019 lunar trips is targeted for 2020. During the Google Lunar X Prize competition, the company struck a deal for launches on Rocket Lab\u2019s Electron rocket, but a final decision on launch arrangements has not yet been announced.<\/p>\n<p>Moon Express has a 72-acre campus at Cape Canaveral, located at the former Launch Complexes 17 and 18.<\/p>\n<p>For years, the company has been involved in a drawn-out contract dispute with Intuitive Machines. In January, a federal jury in Delaware awarded Intuitive Machines $4.1 million in cash and equity, but the case is still under litigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An artist\u2019s conception shows Moon Express\u2019 MX-1E spacecraft making its approach to the moon. (Moon Express Illustration) Moon Express, which aims to start missions to the moon within the next couple of years, says it has raised $2.5 million in bridge financing and has begun a $20 million Series B financing round, anchored by a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[625,2910,5157],"class_list":["post-18338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-moon","tag-moon-express","tag-naveen-jain"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18338"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18338\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}