California Team Wins NASA's Lunar Landing X Prize
Mojava-based Masten Space Systems yesterday won $1 million in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, funded by NASA "as an incentive to spur development of technology by space entrepreneurs," according to the AP. Teams this past weekend had to fly robotic robots that would rise 160-plus feet, travel in the air for at least 180 seconds, land on a rocky landing pad and then fly back to the starting point.
Filed in News and tagged nasa, rocket, space, x prize
Just to add to the LA-area connection, the X PRIZE Foundation is also based here. We're in Playa Vista. Finally, we also had a father-son team based in Solana Beach that mounted an impressive but unsuccessful flight effort in Cantil, CA, over the weekend. All these teams are outrageously inspiring.
You can see lots of photos of Masten's successful flights here: http://picasaweb.google.com/william.pomerantz/2009NGLLCMastenOctober282902