A day after Google Lunar XPRIZE announced that there will not be a launch by March 31, 2018 and that the $30 million prize will go unclaimed, TeamIndus, the team from India, has confirmed that it is terminating the launch services agreement it signed with Antrix in 2016.
Antrix is the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
“Antrix remains committed to encouraging and promoting private enterprise in space. TeamIndus will continue with its goal of building a world class private aerospace company. TeamIndus also thanks Antrix for its assistance and looks forward to collaborating with Antrix in the future to take India higher and further into space. Antrix takes this opportunity to wish TeamIndus all success in its future endeavours,” TeamIndus said in a statement, adding that Antrix and ISRO will continue to be its preferred partners of choice for all its future endeavours.
The Ken reported earlier this month TeamIndus’ contract for a chartered launch on ISRO’s rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), was called off, which meant that it was impossible for it to secure another contract on any other rocket and launch before the deadline.
According to the report, the cancellation of the contract was attributed to lack of funds, procuring hardware and some management issues. However, TeamIndus has not indicated the reasons behind its failure to reach the March 31 deadline.
Speaking of Google Lunar XPRIZE, the company said that it respects GLXP’s decision to not extend the competition deadline.
“We thank them for having created an unique platform that unleashed innovation, created newer technologies and drew in teams from various backgrounds to solve problems of enabling human exploration beyond the Earth orbit,” it said in its statement.
Looking ahead, TeamIndus will continue to work to expand its horizons and work on repeatedly delivering increased capacity, precision of payload to the Moon. It will soon disclose its plans on the next phase of evolution.
Lunar XPRIZE too, said in its statement on Tuesday that it is exploring a number of ways to proceed from here which may include finding a new title sponsor to provide a prize purse, or continuing the Lunar XPRIZE as a non-cash competition where it promotes the teams and help celebrate their achievements.