Team Indus won $1 million prize from Google last year for its spacecraft and is aiming to lift off in a year’s time
An Indian aerospace startup has said that it will launch its mission to the moon in a year?s time, as it takes part in a Google-funded competition to become the world?s first-ever privately held company to make a soft landing there.
A group of more than 100 scientists and engineers, including around a dozen former ISRO scientists, make up Axiom Research Labs? Team Indus. The team is India?s only entry in the Google-funded Lunar XPrize challenge, which has a bounty of $30 million.
To win the prize, a team has to successfully place a spacecraft on the moon?s surface, travel at least 500 meters and transmit high-definition video and images back to Earth.
?A full launch vehicle from ISRO [Indian Space Research Organization] will launch our spacecraft into the orbit of the moon end of 2017,? Rahul Narayan, the fleet commander of the team, said at a news conference in New Delhi on Thursday.
Read the rest on WSJ India blog
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- India?s first private spacecraft plans ride on PSLV to the Moon?- Asian Age
- Bengaluru startup to put India?s first private spacecraft to the Moon?- Deccan Chronicle
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