Monday, February 11, 2019

SpaceX Books Lunar Lander Launch Mission

Hawthorne-based SpaceX has been booked to launch the first, privately funded lunar lander mission, as a secondary payload on an upcoming launch from Cape Canaveral. According to satellite launch arranger Spaceflight, the first, privately funded and developed lunar lander has been booked on an upcoming ride-sharing mission on a SpaceX Falcon 9. The lunar lander was developed by SpaceIL, an Israeli non-profit. The lunar lander is the second, ride-sharing payload on what is expected to be a mid-February 2019 SpaceX Falcon 9 from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Financial details of the various arrangements between the companies were not announced. In addition to that payload, Spaceflight also has arranged for the launch of an experimental small satellite, S5, for the U.S. Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) on the same Falcon 9. Both are piggybacking on a primary launch mission, a telecommunications satellite being launched to cover South East Asia.

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