TeamIndus signs launch contract with ISRO

TeamIndus, a space technology enterprise, is pleased to announce commercial launch contract with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for its historic mission to land a spacecraft on the Moon as part of its bid to win the Google Lunar XPRIZE.

The TeamIndus Spacecraft has been designed and developed in Bangalore by a 100-person engineering team including 20 retired ISRO scientists. In a launch window starting on the 28th of December, 2017, the PSLV will inject the spacecraft into an orbit 880 km x 70,000 km around the Earth. The Spacecraft will then undertake a 21 day journey to soft land in Mare Imbrium, a region in the North-Western hemisphere of the Moon.

After landing in Mare Imbrium, the Spacecraft will deploy all its payload including the TeamIndus Rover that will traverse 500 meters on the Moon’s surface in order to accomplish its Google Lunar XPRIZE objectives.

This agreement reaffirms TeamIndus’ credentials to take the Indian Tricolour to the Moon and set path on potentially becoming the first private entity in the world to soft-land on the lunar surface, a feat previously accomplished by the USSR, United States and China.

Announcing the launch contract, Rahul Narayan, fleet commander, TeamIndus said, “What gave us confidence to dream big when we started on this journey many years back was the heft of the scientific legacy that India, with ISRO, created over decades. This launch contract reaffirms our mission as a truly Indian mission where the best of India’s public and private enterprises have come together to realise a common dream.

Narayan added the mission will help India join an exclusive club of nations with proven technology to soft-land on the Moon, thereby opening newer avenues of space exploration for the benefit of all humankind.

AS Kiran Kumar, chairman, ISRO said, “If you treat space as the new frontier, then who better than the next generation of people who bring in new innovative approaches. We want to see there is enough capacity to make use of the knowledge in India for the world market.

TeamIndus’ journey thus far has received support from a wide range of thought leaders including Ratan Tata, Tata Group; Nandan Nilekani, co-founder, Infosys; Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, Flipkart; Rajiv Mody, Sasken Communications; Jagdish Mehta, CTS India; Gowri Subramanian, Aspire Systems; Venu Srinivasan, TVS Group, Anand Deshpande, Persistent Systems and stock market investors Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Ashish Kacholia, RK Damani amongst others.