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 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

1. "National Geographic News". National Geographic. Retrieved January 2003. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
2. "BBC: Moon opens for business". BBC News. September 10, 2002. Retrieved September 10, 2002.
3. "Orbital Elements for Trailblazer Satellite". Heavens Above Orbit Tracking. Retrieved Feb 2011. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)