more-inThe lone Indian entry in a global Moon landing contest, TeamIndus, as also its four global competitors have got a three-month extension to complete their unique space feat. The deadline to land a rover on Moon is now extended to March 31, 2018 instead of December 31 this year, according to Google and XPRIZE. The two agencies are sponsoring the audacious $30-million-plus Google Lunar XPrize (GLXP) contest for privately financed teams. Bengaluru-based TeamIndus has hired the Indian Space Research Organisation’s PSLV rocket to send its spacecraft, ECA, to Moon on or around December 28. So far, only government-owned and public funded space agencies have sent landing missions to Moon, while ISRO has planned its first lunar landing mission, Chandrayaan-2, in early 2018.

Source: The Hindu August 17, 2017 15:56 UTC