The Moon beckons as five Lunar XPRIZE teams make it to the final round
The race to be the first private company to land on the Moon is on, and now just five teams are left in the running.
Key takeaways
- In order to get through to the final stage all of the finalists had to show evidence that they'd booked their launch contracts by the end of last year.
- SpaceIL and Team Indus secured spots on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and the Indian Space Research Organization’s lower cost Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), respectively.
- According to the XPRIZE's revised guidelines - which have been revised countless times since the competition launched several years ago, a team can stay in the competition only if it initiates its launch by 31 December, 2017.
Cite or link to this article
Griffin, M. (2017) 'The Moon beckons as five Lunar XPRIZE teams make it to the final round', 311 Institute, 30 January. Available at: https://www.311institute.com/the-moon-beckons-as-five-lunar-xprize-teams-make-it-to-the-final-round/ (Accessed: 1 October 2026).
Google's Lunar XPRIZE team have announced that five of the original sixteen private space companies have managed to book their rides to the Moon in 2017 and get through to the final round of the XPRIZE in their race to land a robot rover on the Moon, travel 500 meters streaming Hi-Def video, on their way to pick up prize money of over $30 Million.
The five finalists are SpaceIL, a non profit team based out of Israel; Moon Express, a want to be Moon mining company from the US; Synergy Moon, an international team who hope to promote cost effective space exploration; Team Indus from India and last but not least Japanese based Hakuto, operated by iSpace Inc.
In order to get through to the final stage all of the finalists had to show evidence that they'd booked their launch contracts by the end of last year. SpaceIL and Team Indus secured spots on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and the Indian Space Research Organization’s lower cost Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), respectively. Meanwhile Hakuto will share a ride with Team Indus, and Moon Express and Synergy Moon have secured rides with firms that have not yet launched anything into orbit - Rocket Lab USA and Interorbital Systems.
According to the XPRIZE's revised guidelines - which have been revised countless times since the competition launched several years ago, a team can stay in the competition only if it initiates its launch by 31 December, 2017. Notably absent from the list of finalists though is Part Time Scientists, an international team based in Germany that last year announced it had secured a launch contract and snagged a partnership with Audi, but apparently their submission was too late.
Also absent is longtime front runner US based Astrobotic, which withdrew from the competition and the much lofted Canadian father and son team Plan B who timed out after they failed to secure a launch contract in time.
FAQ
Why does this matter?
The race to be the first private company to land on the Moon is on, and now just five teams are left in the running.
About the author
Matthew Griffin Founder, 311 Institute
Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath."
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Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath." 15-time best selling author of the "Codex of the Future" series, Matthew is the Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm working with royal households, world leaders, G7, G20, and G77 governments, NGOs, and multi-national mid and mega cap firms to help them explore, shape, and lead the next 50 years of business and society.
An award-winning YouTube creator with over a million followers, with an unrivalled global reach and impact, Matthew is a highly sought-after international keynote speaker, lecturer, and mentor who collaborates with global leaders through the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to shape pivotal initiatives such as the UN’s AI for Humanity program, the United Nations Conference of the Parties (UN COP), and the World Economic Forum in Davos.
As the former Global Head of Cloud, National Security, and Enterprise Sales for companies including Atos, Dell-EMC, and IBM, Matthew has a proven track record of building multi-billion dollar business units and turning failing divisions into market leaders. His ability to identify, analyse, and communicate the implications of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends is unparalleled, and his insights are trusted by many of the world’s most respected organisations, including ABB, Accenture, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi, Coca-Cola, Dentons, Deloitte, Dow Jones, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, Siemens AG and Siemens Energy, T-Mobile, UBS, VISA, Walmart, Workday, Worldpay and many others.
Regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, Matthews mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.
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Sources and further reading
- Team spaceil lunar.xprize.org
- Moon express lunar.xprize.org
- Synergy moon lunar.xprize.org
- Team indus lunar.xprize.org
- Hakuto lunar.xprize.org
- iSpace Inc ispace-inc.com
- SpaceX spacex.com
- Indian Space Research Organization’s dos.gov.in
- Rocket Lab USA rocketlabusa.com
- Interorbital Systems interorbital.com
- Part Time Scientists lunar.xprize.org
- Astrobotic lunar.xprize.org
- Plan b lunar.xprize.org
Source: first published by the 311 Institute on 30 January 2017. Cite as: Griffin, M. (2017). The Moon beckons as five Lunar XPRIZE teams make it to the final round. 311 Institute. https://www.311institute.com/the-moon-beckons-as-five-lunar-xprize-teams-make-it-to-the-final-round/
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