LIVE TV
ZEE Business
ZEE BUSINESS
हिंदी में पढ़ें  हिंदी में पढ़ें
Live TV
Live TV
  • Home
  • Budget 2021
  • Personal Finance
    • PPF
    • Mutual Funds
    • Income tax
    • EPFO
    • Income Tax Calculator
    • Personal Loan Calculator
    • Car Loan Calculator
    • Home Loan Calculator
    • SIP calculator
    • SWP Calculator
    • MF Returns Calculator
    • Lumpsum Calculator
  • India
    • Companies
    • Property
    • Startups
    • Uidai
  • Economy
    • Aviation
  • Tech
    • Mobiles
    • Apps
  • Auto
    • Cars
    • Bikes
  • Markets
    • Commodities
    • Currency
  • Jobs
  • Indian Railways
  • World
    • Economy
    • Politics
    • Markets
  • videos
  • photos
  • Authors
  • More ...
    • VIDEOS
    • PHOTOS
Read in App
Business News » India News

TeamIndus' moon mission dream dashed

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Linkedin
  • whatapp
  • View in App
Updated: Wed, Jan 24, 2018
11:31 pm
PTI
RELATED NEWS
Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani on India's Digital Economy I Kotak Institutional Equities highlights details Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani on India's Digital Economy I Kotak Institutional Equities highlights details
Digital economy to outpace GDP growth, will result in 'competitive advantage period' for leaders in digital space highlights ICICI Securities Digital economy to outpace GDP growth, will result in 'competitive advantage period' for leaders in digital space highlights ICICI Securities
#GSTMakeItEasy: Facing GST related issues? Big initiative by Zee Business - Tweet your problems now! Check all details here #GSTMakeItEasy: Facing GST related issues? Big initiative by Zee Business - Tweet your problems now! Check all details here
India’s economy picking up steam, estimate recovery at 10% in FY22: S&P Global India’s economy picking up steam, estimate recovery at 10% in FY22: S&P Global
RBI Monetary Policy: Governor Das says repo rate unchanged, sees GDP at 10.5 pct for FY22, inflation at 5.4 pct for Q4FY21 RBI Monetary Policy: Governor Das says repo rate unchanged, sees GDP at 10.5 pct for FY22, inflation at 5.4 pct for Q4FY21

Indian space startup TeamIndus' moon mission dream has been dashed after Google Lunar XPRIZE brought the curtains down on USD 30 million prize competition, saying all the five finalists in the race to land a rover on the lunar surface could not meet the March 31, 2018 deadline.

City-based TeamIndus was the only Indian team among the finalists in pursuit of the grand prize of USD 30 million that required privately funded teams to land their spacecraft on the surface of the moon, travel 500 metres and broadcast high definition video, images and data back to Earth.

"...we announce that after consulting our teams over the last few months, that there will not be a launch by March 31st, 2018, and our grand prize will go unclaimed. We are exploring a number of ways to proceed, to continue to support our teams," Google Lunar XPRIZE tweeted.

A statement on its website said due to "the difficulties of fundraising, technical and regulatory challenges, the grand prize of the $30M Google Lunar XPRIZE will go unclaimed." Hours after the announcement, TeamIndus today terminated mutually the launch services agreement signed between it and the Antrix Corporation, the commercial arm of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

"Antrix and Teamlndus are mutually terminating the launch services agreement signed in 2016," a release signed by Antrix Chairman cum Managing Director Rakesh Sasibhushan said, making the official announcement after weeks of speculation over the fate of the much-hyped mission.

TeamIndus said, "We have formally, amicably and mutually closed our Launch services agreement with Antrix. We continue to look towards Antrix and ISRO as our preferred partners of choice for all our future endeavours."

It said it had been in talks in the past few weeks with Google Lunar XPrize and expressed its inability to meet the March 31, 2018 deadline, indicating the mission is over.

Both Antrix and TeamIndus did not cite any reason for the termination of the agreement under which ISRO was to have launched TeamIndus' 600 KG spacecraft on its moon mission using its workhorse rocket PSLV from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

PSLV would have injected the spacecraft into an orbit 800 km above the surface of the Earth on its moon mission.

TeamIndus spacecraft was to have taken 4 kg Japanese Hakutos rover on it to the moon with its own indigenously designed and developed robotic rover.

"We respect the decision by the organisers to not extend the competition deadline any further and thank them for having created an unique platform that unleashed innovation, created newer technologies and drew in teams from various backgrounds to solve problems of enabling human exploration beyond the Earth orbit," TeamIndus said in a separate statement.

Thanking partners and supporters over the seven-year journey, TeamIndus said, "We are working closely with all of them to ascertain their role as we expand our horizons and work on repeatedly delivering increased capacity, precision of payload to the Moon.

"More details on our next phase of evolution coming up later this week."

An international panel of judges from the Google Lunar XPRIZE who were in Bengaluru in October to review the moon mission plan of TeamIndus had then said the team has made "substantial progress" and was in the "right direction".

On the launch schedule, TeamIndus Fleet Commander Rahul Narayan had said earlier that they were hopeful of completing the mission in next three to six months.

The deadline for the completion of mission fixed by the Google Lunar XPRIZE is March 31 this year.

On investments, Narayan had said the total cost of the programme was expected to be around Rs 450 crore, out which more than half had been collected and spent, adding that, for the rest talks were on with sponsors and others interested in spending on the mission.

Ratan Tata, Nandan Nilekani (Infosys), Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal (Flipkart) and Venu Srinivasan (TVS Group) and K Kasturirangan (former ISRO chief), among others, are supporting TeamIndus as its advisers.

Other than TeamIndus, the other four finalist teams who have a verified launch contracts are SpaceIL (Israel), Moon Express (USA), Synergy Moon (International) and HAKUTO (Japan).

 

(This article has not been edited by Zeebiz editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)

Get Latest Business News, Stock Market Updates and Videos; Check your tax outgo through Income Tax Calculator and save money through our Personal Finance coverage. Check Business Breaking News Live on Zee Business Twitter and Facebook. Subscribe on YouTube.

TAGS:
Economy
RELATED NEWS
Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani on India's Digital Economy I Kotak Institutional Equities highlights details Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani on India's Digital Economy I Kotak Institutional Equities highlights details
Digital economy to outpace GDP growth, will result in 'competitive advantage period' for leaders in digital space highlights ICICI Securities Digital economy to outpace GDP growth, will result in 'competitive advantage period' for leaders in digital space highlights ICICI Securities
#GSTMakeItEasy: Facing GST related issues? Big initiative by Zee Business - Tweet your problems now! Check all details here #GSTMakeItEasy: Facing GST related issues? Big initiative by Zee Business - Tweet your problems now! Check all details here
India’s economy picking up steam, estimate recovery at 10% in FY22: S&P Global India’s economy picking up steam, estimate recovery at 10% in FY22: S&P Global
RBI Monetary Policy: Governor Das says repo rate unchanged, sees GDP at 10.5 pct for FY22, inflation at 5.4 pct for Q4FY21 RBI Monetary Policy: Governor Das says repo rate unchanged, sees GDP at 10.5 pct for FY22, inflation at 5.4 pct for Q4FY21

LATEST NEWS

MTAR Technologies IPO News: Check allotment status finalisation, listing date and how to check share subscription

Hema Malini: My role in ''Sholay'' has been one of the toughest

PUBG Update: PUBG New State game may launch in India? Details here

LIC Policy: Big opportunity - check rebate in late fee charges, terms and conditions, deadline to revive lapsed life insurance policy

Sensex jumps by 1,148 points, Nifty closes at 15,246

Earthquake of magnitude 6.2 strikes Greece – EMSC

MTAR Technologies IPO Review: Invest for BIG listing gains and long term view, Market Guru Anil Singhvi says - know about valuations, risks

WhatsApp feature: Check account balance, fixed deposit (FD), credit card payment details via 1 message

7th Pay Commission latest news today: DA hike, DR benefit, arrears, ease in LTC — updates that central government employees just cannot miss

In chat with Anil Singhvi, KEC International MD and CEO Vimal Kejriwal speaks on company's outlook, debt and more

  • India News
  • World News
  • Companies News
  • Market News
  • Personal Finance News
  • Technology News
  • Automobile News
  • Small Business News
  • Income Tax Calculator
  • Live TV
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • Author
  • Rss Feed
  • Advertise with us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Legal Disclaimer

Latest Trending Updates

  • EPFO
  • Budget 2020
  • Income Tax Return
  • Auto Expo 2020
  • Home Loan
  • Business News

Trending Topics

  • Income Tax
  • income Tax Calculator
  • 7th Pay Commission
  • Reserve Bank of India
  • GST
  • Latest Business News

Follow us on

zeebiz
zeebiz

Partner Sites

  • Zee News
  • Hindi News
  • Marathi News
  • Bengali News
  • Tamil News
  • Malayalam News
  • Gujarati News
  • Telugu News
  • Kannada News
  • DNA
  • WION
Copyright © Zee Media Corporation Ltd. All rights reserved