DOGE-1 moon mission with SpaceX slated for launch in early 2022
The first-ever crypto-funded mission to the moon, DOGE-1, is slated to launch early in 2022 after a partnership between two blockchain firms and manufacturer Geometric Energy Corporation (GEC).
Smart exchange ecosystem Unizen and decentralized finance incubator ZenX have made an announcement on November 10 that they are currently working to build the DOGE-1, detailing that it is a 40-kilogram (about 88 pounds) CubeSat that would provide a new use case for cryptocurrencies.
The CubeSat is prosed to travel to a “stable lunar orbit” for obtaining a lunar-spatial intelligence from sensors and cameras that would be sent back to the GEC for proper analysis.
The team informed that the CubeSat would be deployed via a launch agreement with SpaceX FalconX scheduled for the first half of 2022, although no specific dates were provided.
Over 1600 CubeSats have been launched so far, but unlike the upcoming DOGE-1, the earlier ones have travelled into Low Earth Orbit that is between 100 and 1200 miles above the Earth’s surface. The travel to lunar orbit would accurately put DOGE-1 250,000 miles away from Earth.
The announcement also shared that NASA’s CAPSTONE was initially set to be the first CubeSat to reach the moon, but due to suffering a number of delays, its current launch date has been set to late March in 2022. This means that DOGE-1 has huge potentials to be the first CubeSat to reach the moon in history, thus marking a significant achievement for global spaceflight.
The Dogecoin-funded project had been introduced earlier in May 2021, with a planned launch date scheduled as the first quarter of 2022. During the introductory announcement, Vice President of Commercial Sales at SpaceX, Tom Ochinero, had said that the mission would possibly “demonstrate the application of cryptocurrency beyond Earth orbit,” hence setting a foundation for “interplanetary commerce.”
SpaceX Founder Elon Musk-led to the rising prominence of Dogecoin (DOGE) earlier this who gave shoutouts to the crypto token highlighting the memecoin’s virtues, claiming to have been working with its developers to improve its efficiency.
The Musk-inspired surge might be responsible for adding billions to DOGE’s market capitalization at a crucial time when more mainstream users were getting into cryptocurrency.
