Monday, February 11, 2019

Spaceflight Selected For Lunar Lander Launch

Seattle-based satellite launch arranger Spaceflight has helped to arrange the launch of a first, privately funded lunar lander, on an upcoming ridesharing mission on a SpaceX Falcon 9, the company announced on Monday. According to Spaceflight, it will launch two payloads, including that lunar lander, on a mid-February 2019 SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Financial details of the deal were not announced. The lunar lander was developed by SpaceIL, an Israeli non-profit. 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). Both are piggybacking on a primary launch mission, a telecomunications satellite being launched to cover South East Asia.