The Dogecoin-funded payload appears to be on track for launch on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 in the first quarter of 2022. DOGE-1, the first crypto-funded lunar mission, is set to launch early next year as a result of a new collaboration between two blockchain companies and manufacturer Geometric Energy Corporation, also known as GEC.
The ecosystem of smart exchange Unizen and ZenX, a decentralized finance incubator, announced on Wednesday that they are in the process of building and launching DOGE-1, a 40-kilogram (88-pound) CubeSat that will provide a new use case for cryptocurrencies. The CubeSat will be launched into a “stable lunar orbit” to collect lunar-spatial intelligence from sensors and cameras, which will then be sent back to GEC for analysis.
The CubeSat will be launched via a SpaceX FalconX launch agreement in the first quarter of 2022, though no firm dates were provided. To date, over 1,600 CubeSats have been launched, but unlike DOGE-1, they have traveled into Low Earth Orbit, which is 100 to 1,200 miles above the Earth’s surface. DOGE-1 is 250,000 miles away from Earth after reaching lunar orbit.
“NASA’s CAPSTONE was supposed to be the first CubeSat to reach the moon, but it has been delayed several times and now has a launch date of late March 2022,” the companies said. “This means that DOGE-1 could be the first CubeSat in history to reach the moon, which would be a significant accomplishment for global spaceflight.”
As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the Dogecoin-funded project was first announced in May of this year, with a launch date as early as the first quarter of 2022. At the time, SpaceX’s vice president of commercial sales, Tom Ochinero, stated that the mission would “demonstrate the application of cryptocurrency beyond Earth orbit and lay the groundwork for interplanetary commerce.”
Dogecoin (DOGE) rose to prominence earlier this year, thanks in part to SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who praised the meme coin and even claimed to be working with its developers to improve its efficiency. The Musk-inspired surge may have added billions to DOGE’s market capitalization at a time when cryptocurrency was becoming more popular among mainstream users.
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