TransOrbital
TransOrbital is a California-based company which became the first private company granted U.S. government permission to explore, photograph, and land on the moon.[1][2] The company has been covered in over 2,000 news articles worldwide, and announced a sponsorship agreement with Hewlett-Packard in 2003. The company has not yet launched the TrailBlazer lunar orbiter, which hopes to be the first privately funded mission to the Moon.
TransOrbital launched a test spacecraft into orbit in 2002 aboard a Dnepr-1 launch vehicle. The satellite is a 420 kg test article that orbits the earth every 97 minutes.[3]
External links
- Official website -- seems to be a zombie-site, not updated for almost a decade
- Wired Magazine: The Race Back to the Moon
- CNN: Private moon venture given U.S. clearance
References
- ↑ "National Geographic News". National Geographic. Retrieved January 2003.
- ↑ "BBC: Moon opens for business". BBC News. September 10, 2002. Retrieved September 10, 2002.
- ↑ "Orbital Elements for Trailblazer Satellite". Heavens Above Orbit Tracking. Retrieved Feb 2011.