Originally published 2021-05-11.
On 9 May 2021, Elon Musk announced that SpaceX would carry a small satellite called DOGE-1 to the Moon, and that the Canadian company behind it, Geometric Energy Corporation, was paying for the ride entirely in Dogecoin, the joke cryptocurrency with a Shiba Inu meme as its mascot. It was billed as the first crypto-funded space mission and the first meme in space. The launch was meant to happen in 2022. It did not, and years of delays followed. Here is what was agreed, what the satellite is supposed to do, and what the deal did and did not mean for Dogecoin.
The deal in brief
Geometric Energy Corporation, led by chief executive Samuel Reid, announced the mission in May 2021, with reporting by Bloomberg. Neither company disclosed how much Dogecoin changed hands. Geometric said the coin had been chosen as the unit of account for all lunar business between the two firms, and described it as secure and sophisticated enough "to finance a commercial Moon mission in full."
Musk shared the news with a typically playful tweet:
SpaceX launching satellite Doge-1 to the moon next year
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2021
– Mission paid for in Doge
– 1st crypto in space
– 1st meme in space
To the mooooonnn!!https://t.co/xXfjGZVeUW
For SpaceX, accepting a cryptocurrency for a small rideshare payload was a low-risk publicity win. For Dogecoin fans it looked like an endorsement. The two are not the same thing, as later events showed.
What DOGE-1 is meant to do
DOGE-1 is a small CubeSat of about 40 kilograms. It was due to fly as a secondary payload on a Falcon 9 rocket alongside a lunar mission by Houston firm Intuitive Machines, then travel into orbit around the Moon. It carries sensors and a camera that Geometric says will gather "lunar-spatial intelligence" about the Moon's surface.
Its more unusual job is advertising. The satellite has a small screen that displays logos, images and messages, which a camera films and sends back to Earth for streaming online. Geometric has compared the concept to the Million Dollar Homepage. Oddly, according to Wikipedia's summary, the screen is controlled with a different token, Xi Protocol, rather than with Dogecoin itself.
Why the launch kept slipping
Small satellites that ride along with bigger missions depend entirely on their host's schedule. DOGE-1 was tied to Intuitive Machines' lunar flights, which were postponed several times, and SpaceX also moved the satellite's slot. The 2022 target came and went.
This is normal for rideshare payloads. A secondary satellite cannot fly until the main spacecraft, its lander and its launch window are all ready, and lunar missions in particular have suffered repeated technical and scheduling setbacks across the industry.
As of February 2026, Wikipedia listed DOGE-1 as tentatively scheduled for 13 September 2026. We could not confirm whether it has flown since then, so check SpaceX or Geometric Energy announcements for the latest status. The lesson for readers is simple: a launch contract, however it is paid, is not a launch.
Dogecoin in 2021: a joke that got serious money
Software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer launched Dogecoin on 6 December 2013 as a light-hearted take on the crypto craze. Contrary to some descriptions, it does not run on the Bitcoin or Ethereum blockchain. It has its own chain, originally forked from Litecoin, with one-minute blocks and no fixed supply limit: about five billion new coins are created each year.
In early 2021 Dogecoin soared, helped by social media enthusiasm, retail trading apps and repeated tweets from Musk, who called himself the "Dogefather". Celebrities including Mark Cuban, Snoop Dogg and Gene Simmons also talked it up. The coin passed 50 US cents for the first time on 4 May 2021, and its market value briefly topped 85 billion dollars, a rise of many thousands of per cent over the previous year.
Musk's companies were already linked to crypto. Tesla disclosed in February 2021 that it had bought 1.5 billion dollars' worth of Bitcoin, and in December 2021 it began accepting Dogecoin for some merchandise.
The Saturday Night Live moment
The DOGE-1 announcement came the day after Musk hosted Saturday Night Live on 8 May 2021. In a Weekend Update sketch, asked to explain Dogecoin, he eventually agreed it was "a hustle". During the broadcast the coin fell by as much as about 29 per cent. In his opening monologue, Musk also said he has Asperger's syndrome, describing himself as the first person with the condition to host the show.
The timing shows how loosely a cryptocurrency's price can be tied to one person's words. A satellite deal did not change Dogecoin's technology or adoption in any lasting way, and the coin did not get back to its May 2021 peak in the next few years. In 2022 an investor even sued Musk, Tesla and SpaceX, claiming they had inflated Dogecoin's price; a federal judge dismissed that lawsuit in 2024.
What DOGE-1 tells us
DOGE-1 is a small but telling footnote in the commercial space era. Rideshare launches have made it possible for little-known companies to buy a place on rockets that once carried only government payloads, and SpaceX is willing to accept unusual forms of payment. But announcements, payment methods and memes do not move a satellite any closer to the Moon. Schedules, hosts and hardware do.
If you are thinking about cryptocurrency, remember that coins tied to celebrity attention can swing sharply in either direction. Only use money you can afford to lose, and read the risks of any platform carefully before signing up.
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Sources: Wikipedia: DOGE-1; Wikipedia: Dogecoin; Elon Musk on X/Twitter, 9 May 2021. Original announcement reported by Bloomberg, 10 May 2021.
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