Wed, Mar 07, 2012
Adds To Company's Portion Of A $10M Commercial Lunar Data Contract
Moon Express, a Google Lunar X PRIZE contender, said Monday it has won an additional task order from NASA under its Innovative Lunar Demonstration Data (ILDD) Program contract. The newest task order in the $10M ILDD contract calls for Moon Express to provide NASA with data about the company's progress through a Preliminary Design Checkpoint Technical Package that documents details of mission operations, spacecraft development, payload accommodations and Planetary Protection Plans. (Moon Express lander prototype pictured below, left)
Silicon Valley-based Moon Express was one of only three U.S. companies awarded the first $500K Task Order under NASA's ILDD program. Successful completion of the newest task order will bring the company's ILDD awards to $610,000.
"We are very pleased to receive another ILDD contract award from NASA," said Bob Richards, co-founder and CEO of Moon Express. "NASA is an important partner in our reach for the Moon."
Moon Express is the first company to flight test a prototype lunar lander system designed for the Moon, developed in partnership with NASA. The company plans to send a series of robotic spacecraft to the Moon for ongoing exploration and commercial development focused on benefits to Earth.
Moon Express is adapting NASA's Common Spacecraft Bus for use in small, low cost spacecraft designed to deliver payloads to a variety of locations, including lunar orbit and the lunar surface, Low Earth Orbit (LEO), Earth-Moon Lagrange points, and Near Earth Objects (NEOs). The Common Spacecraft Bus allows the company to design low-cost missions, launch on a variety of commercial rockets and deliver flexible payloads to the lunar surface and various orbits. Moon Express signed a Reimbursable Space Act Agreement with NASA in 2010 to invest over $500K into the commercialization of the agency's technology in return for technical assistance.
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