Lone Indian Moon landing contestant TeamIndus and its four global competitors on Wednesday got a three-month extension from contest organisers to complete their space feat.
The deadline to land on Moon is now extended to March 31 next year instead of December 31 this year, according to Google and XPRIZE who announced the contest a few years back.
Bengaluru-based TeamIndus had recently said it was readying a spacecraft version for qualification tests with ISRO. It has hired ISRO's PSLV rocket to send its spacecraft, ECA, to Moon on or around December 28.
Rahul Narayan, its board member and Fleet Commander, said, "While we have been working hard on an aggressive timeline, the change of date allows us to continue work with that fervour to make sure that the mission makes history.”
( India’s first private moon mission )
The winner who first lands on Moon, moves a rover for 500 metres and sends photos back as proof gets a grand prize of $ 20 million. Organisers said they had added a few more prizes worth $ 4.5 million for 'in space' milestones, as well as a second prize.
The other finalist teams who each have a verified launch contracts are: SpaceIL (Israel), Moon Express (USA), Synergy Moon (International) and HAKUTO (Japan).
