Astrobotic and Spacebit Announce Agreement to Bring the First UK Commercial Payload to the Moon
UK-based company Spacebit signs agreement to deliver their first lunar payload on Astrobotic's upcoming Peregrine mission in 2021
NEWPORT, Wales, Sept. 25, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Spacebit proudly announces at The UK Space Conference 2019 their signing of a joint agreement with Astrobotic to begin commercial and scientific lunar exploration with the first mission in 2021 on the Peregrine lunar lander.
Astrobotic's Peregrine lunar lander will be launched on a Vulcan Centaur rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The launch will carry the first lunar lander from American soil since Apollo.
This agreement comes after Spacebit examined the field of commercial lunar delivery providers and determined Astrobotic to be the world's leading provider with one of the most technically mature lunar lander programs. With this announcement, Spacebit joins Astrobotic's existing manifest of 16-signed contracts toward Peregrine Mission One.
CEO of Spacebit, Pavlo Tanasyuk, commented "We could not be more excited to fly this mission with Astrobotic. This mission will result in the first payload from the UK to reach the Moon surface and mark the beginning of a new era in commercial space exploration for Britain."
"Astrobotic is very excited to bring Spacebit's first payload to the Moon. Spacebit has pioneered a captivating new way of working on the lunar surface, and we look forward to more details being released soon," said Astrobotic CEO John Thornton.
About Astrobotic
Astrobotic Technology, Inc. is a space robotics company that seeks to make space accessible to the world. The company's lunar lander, Peregrine, delivers payloads to the Moon for companies, governments, universities, non-profits, and individuals for $1.2 million per kilogram. Astrobotic was selected by NASA in May 2019 for a $79.5 million contract to deliver payloads to the Moon in 2021. The company also has more than 30 prior and ongoing NASA and commercial technology contracts, a commercial partnership with Airbus DS, and a corporate sponsorship with DHL. The company is also an official partner with NASA through the Lunar CATALYST Program. Astrobotic was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA.
About Spacebit
Spacebit is a privately held UK company that is working on space data analytics tools and robotic concepts of space exploration that include AI and advanced microrobotics. The company believes in creating commercially sustainable data and robotics business in space exploration. Spacebit's approach to engineering is to deliver a low cost solution for exploration of celestial bodies. Its goal is creating new opportunities for industry, academia and helping with future development of a new infrastructure and commercial resource exploration on the Moon and beyond. Spacebit is also using distributed ledger technologies to create new data models and democratise access to space.
Contact for Astrobotic: Carolyn Pace
[email protected]
+1(412)682-3282
Contact for Spacebit: Anastasiia Sivolodska
[email protected]
+44-113-328-0599
SOURCE Spacebit; Astrobotic
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