To the Moon, Not Yet: DOGE-1 Launch Faces Another Delay

The battle cry of the Dogecoin community has taken on a very literal meaning over the past few months. Typically, the phrase “TO THE MOON!” is in reference to a price chart rocketing upwards, not a literal flight to the Earth’s ghostly friend. But Elon Musk may have taken this advice a bit too literally, as his exploration company SpaceX has begun preparing for their next mission – DOGE-1. Unfortunately, the much-anticipated space voyage has seen another setback after originally being planned for sometime in the last quarter of 2023.

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The mission to send Dogecoin to the moon has been in play since 2021, when Elon Musk took to Twitter to announce the venture.

Naturally, preparing a spacecraft and setting all the variables in place to explore the world outside the atmosphere is a lengthy and arduous process. At first, the mission was set for Q4 2023. Then, after a delay, the schedule changed to January 12th. However, yet another delay has seen the expedition set to launch sometime around mid-February 2024 – if not later.

The mission is a joint venture between SpaceX, which will be providing the craft, and Geometric Energy Corp. which is in charge of space logistics. Doge-1 will be piggybacking on another mission headed by Intuitive Machines, who plan to land a Nova-C rover that will explore the moon’s south pole.

Unlike IM-1, which may provide valuable insight into the moon’s surface – the goal of launching the DOGE-1 satellite isn’t anything special. Really, the team just wants to put a Dogecoin-themed satellite in orbit around the moon. 

It’s basically a meme, but hey, if anything represents modern society’s popular culture better than a million-dollar meme, I’m yet to hear it.