The mission to the moon, which was funded by members of the Dogecoin community, received approval from the US National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). DOGE-1 will take off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

DOGE-1 is being developed by Geometric Energy, which announced the project back in May 2021. The company’s CEO, Samuel Reid, clarified that after NTIA approval, the flight of the device must also be approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Only then will the flight become possible.

The satellite has a mass of 40 kg and must orbit the Moon, collecting information with cameras and sensors. However, the collection of scientific data in Geometric’s interests is not the main thing. On the outer skin of the DOGE-1 satellite there is a screen that should broadcast advertisements, images and logos, and this picture (a screen with advertising in space above the Moon) will be broadcast to Earth. DOGE-1 will be the first satellite whose cost, including launch, was paid for with cryptocurrency, namely DOGE tokens.

The launch of DOGE-1 was first announced by SpaceX founder Elon Musk in 2021. However, the mission was repeatedly postponed. The launch is now scheduled for January 2024.

Recently, the American company Astrobotic, which develops space robotics for lunar missions, announced that it is going to send a wallet with the meme cryptocurrency DOGE to the surface of the Earth’s satellite on December 23 using the Vulcan Centaur Rocket ULA.

And in April, cryptocurrency company LunarCrush announced that it would use a SpaceX rocket to send the private key to a cryptocurrency wallet containing 62 BTC to the Moon. The “Bitcoin Treasure,” codenamed Nakamoto-1, will be available to the first person to walk on the Moon. The person will receive a private key to a crypto wallet, which will be engraved on the Lunar Outpost MAPP rover.