The Google-sponsored Lunar X Prize competition may be dead, but the foundation behind the contest still plans to give a cash prize to one of its former competitors — if the team actually lands on the Moon. Today, the X Prize Foundation, which organized the competition, announced it will give a $1 million “Moonshot” award to the Israeli non-profit SpaceIL, if the organization’s lander successfully touches down on the lunar surface.
SpaceIL was originally one of five finalists in the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize competition, which ran from 2007 to 2018. The competition aimed to lower the cost of getting to deep space, by challenging teams all over the world to build and launch lunar landers using mostly private funding. The first team…
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