SpaceX plans to launch a payload paid for with Dogecoin to the moon in 2022

Canada-based manufacturing and logistics company Geometric Energy Corporation will launch a payload paid for with Dogecoin on one of SpaceX’s first lunar rockets.

Geometric Energy Corporation said in a statement on Sunday that its commercial satellite will be sent to the moon as early as the first quarter of 2022 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The 40-kilogram (88-pound) payload is designed to "acquire lunar space intelligence through sensors and cameras with integrated communications and computing systems."

Samuel Reid, CEO of Geometric Energy, said: "Geometric Energy has officially used Dogecoin to complete such a large-scale transaction with SpaceX, thus consolidating Dogecoin's position as the accounting unit for lunar business in the space field."

Tom Ochinero, SpaceX Vice President of Commercial Sales, added:

“This mission will demonstrate the use of cryptocurrencies beyond Earth orbit and lay the foundation for interstellar commerce.”

Neither SpaceX nor Geometric Energy has specified how Dogecoin was used to fund the mission. The costs could be related in part to the development of the payload, or funding to launch the payload to the moon.

Previous lunar missions have been costly. China's Chang'e-4 mission, the last spacecraft to softly land on the far side of the moon in 2019, sent a 1,200-kilogram lander and a 140-kilogram rover to the moon at a cost of 1.2 billion yuan (about $172 million at the time). NASA launched a satellite orbiting the moon's equator in 2013, the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, with a payload mass of 49.6 kilograms, at a cost of about $280 million, including research and development costs of $5.6 million per kilogram (excluding mass at launch).

If Geometric Energy’s satellites cost the same, even though SpaceX’s design may be more efficient over the next eight years, the company would need to pay approximately $225.8 million for a 40 kg payload, which is more than 388 million Dogecoins at the time of writing, which is equivalent to 0.3% of the 129.5 billion Dogecoin circulating supply.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk has hinted on Twitter several times (perhaps jokingly) that Dogecoin will be the first cryptocurrency to “actually” reach the moon. Musk’s social media activity may be responsible for the coin’s surge in price, which has risen more than 800% in the past 30 days.