SpaceX CEO Elon Musk found another way to keep the moonlight shining on himself by announcing Sunday plans for his space-venturing company to launch a lunar satellite next year paid for entirely by the memetic cryptocurrency called Dogecoin.
It’s not a joke, according to a press release by the Geometric Energy Corporation, a firm dedicated to inventing renewable energy technologies. The company is collaborating with SpaceX to launch a 100-pound cube satellite, known as the DOGE-1, as a rideshare on board a Falcon 9 rocket.
Musk also personally made the announcement over his Twitter account a day after his appearance as guest host of Saturday Night Live.
The launch is scheduled to blast off in the first quarter of next year, Musk tweeted.
“The DOGE-1 Mission to the Moon—the first-ever commercial lunar payload in history paid entirely with DOGE—will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket,” the Geometric Energy release stated.
Geometric did not release the details on how much Dogecoin it would spend on the cubesat.
“Having officially transacted with DOGE for a deal of this magnitude, Geometric Energy Corporation and SpaceX have solidified DOGE as a unit of account for lunar business in the space sector,” said Samuel Reid, Geometric Energy’s CEO.
Geometric said the satellite’s mission is to gather lunar-spatial information from sensors and cameras. The energy company stated the mission will demonstrate the application of cryptocurrency for space fairing missions and set a foundation for interplanetary commerce.
Dogecoin was the chosen cryptocoin because its “proven to be a fast, reliable, and cryptographically secure digital currency that operates when traditional banks cannot and is sophisticated enough to finance a commercial Moon mission in full,” Geometric stated. Dogecoin has been chosen as the unit account for all lunar business between SpaceX and Geometric, the energy company stated.
Dogecoin was a cryptocurrency first conceived in 2013 and made to parody Bitcoin. For most of its existence, the virtual coin has been worth less than 1 cent. However, that soon changed earlier this year when Musk tweeted out “In retrospect, it was inevitable” referencing the rise of Dogecoin.
Since then, Dogecoin has escalated to an astonishing peak of 74 cents over the weekend just before Musk’s SNL debut, where he played a cryptocoin expert on the Weekend Update trying to explain what Dogecoin is.
“So it’s a hustle?” joked Weekend Update host, Michael Che.
“Yeah,” Musk said to a roar of audience laughter. He followed the joke up with the rallying cry of online Dogecoin supporters, “To the moon!”
