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TeamIndus, a space technology enterprise, has entered into a commercial launch contract with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
With this, the company will be part of a historic mission to land a spacecraft on the Moon as part of its bid to win the Google Lunar XPRIZE.
TeamIndus is the only Indian team competing for the Google Lunar XPRIZE. The goal of the unprecedented $30-million prize is to ignite a new era of space exploration by lowering the cost and inspiring the imagination of the next generation.
To win the prize, privately funded teams must land their spacecraft on the surface of the Moon, travel 500 meters, and broadcast high-definition video, images and data back to Earth.
Announcing the launch contract, Rahul Narayan, TeamIndus’ Fleet Commander, said: “What gave us confidence to dream big when we started this journey many years back, was the heft of the scientific legacy that India, with ISRO, has created over decades.” The mission will help India join an exclusive club of nations with proven technology to soft-land on the Moon, thereby opening newer avenues of space exploration for the benefit of all humankind.
“Programmes like these are a testimony to the Make in India initiative in the increasingly competitive world of New Space companies,” added Narayan.
AS Kiran Kumar, Chairman, ISRO, had earlier said: “If you treat space as the new frontier, then who better than the next generation of people who bring in new innovative approaches. We want to see that there is enough capacity to make use of the knowledge in India for the world market.”
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