[GLXP Press Release - 21.04.2010]
Today, Barcelona Moon Team, a multidisciplinary joint venture bringing together Spanish entrepreneurial, industrial and academic capabilities, announced its official entry into the Google Lunar X PRIZE - a $30 million competition that challenges space professionals and engineers from across the globe to build and launch to the moon a privately funded spacecraft capable of completing a series of exploration and transmission tasks. Barcelona Moon Team, headquartered in Barcelona, Spain, is among the 21 teams from 11 countries that are vying for their share of the $30 million prize purse.

“Through our official participation in the Google Lunar X PRIZE, we want to promote collaboration between the Spanish aerospace industry, academia and the whole of society,” said Xavier Claramunt, space entrepreneur and Barcelona Moon team leader. “GLXP has the potential to be an amazing project that poses new challenges and fosters enthusiasm in a growing industry such as the Catalan and Spanish aerospace sector. GLXP is called to serve as the key to open the door for the private sector to enter the exploration and appropriate exploitation of space.”

The Barcelona Moon Team is the first Spain-based team to enter the competition and is comprised of ten companies and individuals, including several Spanish private organizations, technological centres, space professionals and scientists. The team is led by Galactic Suite Moonrace, a filial company of Galactic Suite Design that also promotes and develops the Galactic Suite Spaceresort, the first space hotel, which intends to provide a complete experience of space tourism by combining several elements of Earth and of orbit. Other team members include: Barcelona-based technological partners, Juan de Dalmau and the Centre for Aerospace Technology (CTAE); Scientist Ignasi Casanova and his team from the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC), who support the team in the aspects of Planetary Protection and scientific payload; and Jordi Rigual, of New Output (NOP), who provides strategic and commercial support.

“We consider the prize purse to be a stimulus as the budget can be higher than $30M, but the real goal of our team is to promote, in accordance with the reality of the sector, a widening involvement of private initiative in the development of space technology and industry, including sectors such as exploration and tourism, developing steps and synergies for longer term plans for an appropriate exploitation of space,” stated Claramunt.

For more information about Barcelona Moon Team, please visit www.bcnmoonteam.com. High-resolution photographs, video and other team materials are available upon request.

ABOUT THE GOOGLE LUNAR X PRIZE
The $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE is an unprecedented international competition that challenges and inspires engineers and entrepreneurs from around the world to develop low-cost methods of robotic space exploration. The $30 million prize purse is segmented into a $20 million Grand Prize, a $5 million Second Prize and $5 million in bonus prizes. To win the Grand Prize, a team must successfully soft land a privately funded spacecraft on the Moon, rove on the lunar surface for a minimum of 500 meters, and transmit a specific set of video, images and data back to the Earth. The Grand Prize is $20 million until December 31st 2012; thereafter it will drop to $15 million until December 31st 2014 at which point the competition will be terminated unless extended by Google and the X PRIZE Foundation. For more information about the Google Lunar X PRIZE, please visit www.googlelunarxprize.org.

ABOUT THE X PRIZE FOUNDATION
The X PRIZE Foundation is an educational nonprofit prize institute whose mission is to create radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. In 2004, the Foundation captured the world’s attention when the Burt Rutan-led team, backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, built and flew the world’s first private spaceship to win the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE for suborbital spaceflight. The Foundation has since launched the $10 million Archon X PRIZE for Genomics, the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE and the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE. The Foundation, with the support of its partner, BT Global Services, is creating prizes in Space and Ocean Exploration, Life Sciences, Energy and Environment, Education and Global Development. The Foundation is widely recognized as a leader in fostering innovation through competition. For more information, please visit www.xprize.org.