First published November 14, 2021.
DOGE-1 is a small lunar satellite whose launch was paid for entirely in Dogecoin, the meme cryptocurrency. It was announced in May 2021 by Canadian company Geometric Energy Corporation and SpaceX, with a target launch in early 2022. It did not fly then. Despite several reassignments to later Moon missions, it had still not launched as of 2026. Contrary to some early headlines, it was never a "trip to the Moon" for people: it is an uncrewed cubesat.
Here is what was promised, who was behind it, what the mission is meant to do, and what actually happened next.
What was announced
On 9 May 2021, SpaceX and Geometric Energy Corporation (GEC) announced that a SpaceX Falcon 9 would carry DOGE-1 to the Moon as a rideshare payload, and that GEC had paid for the launch in Dogecoin. Blockchain firms Unizen and ZenX were partners in the project. The news came the morning after Elon Musk hosted Saturday Night Live, at the height of the 2021 Dogecoin craze.
Musk celebrated on Twitter the same day, calling it the first crypto and the first meme in space:
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
SpaceX's vice president of commercial sales, Tom Ochinero, said the mission would show that cryptocurrency could be used beyond Earth orbit and "set the foundation for interplanetary commerce."
A small correction to some older reports: SpaceX is not owned by PayPal. Musk co-founded X.com, which merged into PayPal, and later founded SpaceX with part of his proceeds from PayPal's sale.
What DOGE-1 actually is
DOGE-1 is a cubesat, a small satellite built from standard-sized modules. It uses a 12-unit (12U) design built by GEC, with the contractor Exobotics. Early announcements described it as weighing about 40 kg; Gunter's Space Page, a widely used satellite database, now lists a launch mass of about 14 kg.
After separating from the rocket, the plan is for DOGE-1 to use electric propulsion to settle into a stable elliptical orbit around the Moon. Its stated goals are to take images and to demonstrate blockchain-based data, communication and navigation relays beyond low Earth orbit, as a test for GEC's planned space-based Internet of Things network. Its design lifetime is two years.
The race to be the first cubesat at the Moon
In late 2021 the backers argued that DOGE-1 could beat NASA's CAPSTONE to become the first cubesat to reach the Moon, because CAPSTONE kept being delayed. That did not happen.
CAPSTONE, also a 12U cubesat, launched on a Rocket Lab Electron from New Zealand on 28 June 2022 and entered lunar orbit on 14 November 2022. It became the first spacecraft to operate in a near-rectilinear halo orbit, the path once planned for NASA's lunar Gateway station. Several other small satellites also headed to the Moon on the Artemis I flight that November. DOGE-1, meanwhile, was still waiting for a ride.
Delays: where DOGE-1 stands now
The satellite was first assigned to the IM-1 mission of Intuitive Machines, the Houston company that builds the Nova-C lunar lander, with DOGE-1 riding on the same Falcon 9. That mission slipped from 2022 into early 2024, and shortly before it launched, Geometric announced that DOGE-1 would move to a later flight.
The latest listing on Gunter's Space Page shows DOGE-1 as postponed, planned as a rideshare on a Falcon 9 with Intuitive Machines' IM-3 lander, with a target in 2026. It has no international satellite designation, which is only issued once a spacecraft is in space. The mission is not cancelled, but more than four years after its original target date it has yet to fly.
That is not unusual for small payloads. Rideshare satellites depend on the main mission's schedule, and lunar lander programmes have slipped repeatedly across the industry.
Dogecoin in 2021: the hype behind the headline
Dogecoin was created in December 2013 by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer as a joke based on the Shiba Inu "doge" meme. For years it was worth a fraction of a cent.
That changed in 2021. In late January, during the GameStop trading frenzy, it jumped by more than 800% in a day to about 7 cents. It reached 10 cents in mid-April and passed 50 cents in early May, helped along by tweets from Musk and celebrities. Its market value peaked at over $85 billion on 5 May. Some older reports said Dogecoin began 2021 at about 5 cents; in fact it started the year below one cent.
During Musk's SNL appearance on 8 May, when he jokingly called Dogecoin "a hustle", the price fell by almost 30%. The DOGE-1 announcement the next morning was widely seen as an effort to restore momentum. By the autumn of 2021 the coin was trading at roughly a third of its peak.
What to take from the DOGE-1 story
Paying for a launch in a cryptocurrency was a genuine first and a clever piece of publicity. But a payment method is not a mission, and a booking is not a launch. For space news in general, it helps to separate three steps: an announcement, a rocket actually lifting off, and a spacecraft working at its destination.
For anyone holding a coin because of news like this, the lesson from 2021 is the same as ever. Publicity can move prices quickly in both directions, so only invest money you can afford to lose.
Ways to buy #Bitcoin and other #crypto like #Ethereum ( #ETH) , #Cardano ( #ADA) , #BNB and more: Join #Binance, the biggest exchange in the world, buy, earn and spend crypto with their Visa Debit Card: https://accounts.binance.com/en/register?ref=13380876
Join #CryptoCom , Use our referral link https://crypto.com/app/m524bfdwja to sign up for Crypto.com and we both get $25 USD 🙂 You can earn interest and use their Visa Debit Card.
Sign up with our referral link and earn up to 100 Euros in free #BORG to kickstart your crypto portfolio with #SwissBorg with your first transfer of 50 Euros! https://join.swissborg.com/r/alkimoKOWX
Earn passive income on many cryptocurrencies!
Join #Nexo , a great app to earn passive income, and earn $10 https://nexo.io/ref/d5js2kmhbw
Sources: Gunter's Space Page: DOGE 1; Wikipedia: Dogecoin; Wikipedia: CAPSTONE; early reporting by CoinTelegraph.
COMMENTS