Registration for the 2008 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge is now closed! At the end, 10 teams have registered for the competition, 5 veteran teams from last year whom you already know, and 5 brand new teams who think they have what it takes! 4 of those teams have elected to remain confidential, which they can maintain until August 31, but the other 6 are ready to share their progress with the world. Keep an eye on their team pages and their own personal blogs for updates and new information about their progress! Also make sure to have a look at our matchup feature, to find out how teams stack up against one another!

You can also download this kmz file to see where the teams are located using Google Earth!

The Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge will again be taking place at Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, New Mexico on October 24 and 25. The Challenge is designed to accelerate commercial technological developments supporting the birth of a new generation of Lunar Landers capable of ferrying payloads or humans back and forth between lunar orbit and the lunar surface. Such a vehicle would have direct application to NASA’s space exploration goals as well as the personal spaceflight industry, including the Google Lunar X PRIZE competitors. Additionally, the challenge will help industry develop the operational capacity to launch quick turnaround vertical take-off, vertical landing vehicles, which will be of significant use to many facets of the commercial launch procurement market.

The Competition is divided into two levels. Level 1 requires a rocket to take off from a designated launch area, rocket up to 150 feet (50 meters) altitude, then hover for 90 seconds while landing precisely on a landing pad 50 meters away. The flight must then be repeated in reverse—and both flights, along with all of the necessary preparation for each, must take place within a two and a half hour period.

The more difficult course, Level 2, requires the rocket to hover for twice as long before landing precisely on a simulated lunar surface, packed with craters and boulders to mimic actual lunar terrain. The hover times are calculated so that the Level 2 mission closely simulates the power needed to perform a real lunar mission.

In the 2007 competition, held as part of the X PRIZE Cup, there were nine competitors total. However, despite the best efforts of all of the teams, only one of them, Armadillo Aerospace, was ready to fly. They missed winning Level 1 by 7 seconds.

You can see a complete description of all of last year’s competitors on last year's site.

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