This Indian Firm Is Eyeing To Land The First Ever Privately Owned Spacecraft On The Moon
If everything goes as planned, this December, the Bengaluru-based Team Indus will become the first private firm in the world to land a spacecraft on the moon. The company is now just a step away from building the flight model that will be flown on-board a PSLV from Sriharikota spaceport. "We have built a qualification model of the spacecraft, which will undergo rigorous testing at Isro's test facility in August second week. The next step will be building the flight model, which will be flown," said Sheelika Ravishankar, in-charge of the firm's marketing. The company is one of the five finalists in the Google Lunar X Prize competition that seeks teams to successfully land a 90% privately-funded spacecraft on the moon, travel 500m on its surface and transmit images and videos back to earth. Guided by two dozen retired Isro scientists, a team of more than 100 have designed and developed the 600 kg spacecraft and a 6kg rover. Besides carrying their o...