Elon Musk announces DOGE-1, the first Dogecoin-funded mission to the Moon
On Monday, Elon Musk took to Twitter to announce, "SpaceX launching satellite Doge-1 to the Moon next year. Mission paid for in Doge; 1st crypto in space; 1st meme in space."
FollowSpaceX founder Elon Musk has announced that his company will launch the 'DOGE-1' mission to the Moon in the first quarter of 2022. And yes, SpaceX will accept the meme-inspired cryptocurrency dogecoin as payment for the lunar payload.
On Monday, Elon Musk took to Twitter to announce, "SpaceX launching satellite Doge-1 to the Moon next year. Mission paid for in Doge; 1st crypto in space; 1st meme in space."
DOGE-1 will have a 40 Kg cube-shaped satellite as payload on a Falcon 9 rocket, with Canadian firm Geometric Energy Corporation announcing that its payload will seek lunar-spatial intelligence from sensors and cameras on-board with other integrated systems.
Tom Ochinero, SpaceX vice president for commercial sales, had yesterday said that the mission would demonstrate the application of cryptocurrency beyond Earth orbit and set the foundation for interplanetary commerce.
Dogecoin was launched as a joke in 2013 when the cryptocurrency boom was still in its early days. But it started gaining traction in late January this year when the Reddit-fueled trading frenzy in GameStop and other so-called meme stocks took off.
The Tesla CEO sparked massive interest in Dogecoin after he bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin and announced that he would soon accept it as a form of payment for Tesla's electric cars.
Over the last month, Dogecoin has jumped more than 800% over the last month and is now the fourth-largest digital currency with a market capitalisation of $73 billion.
However, Dogecoin lost over a third of its price on Sunday after Elon Musk called it a 'hustle' while taking part in the comedy television show Saturday Night Live.
