Next Giant Leap Offering Lunar Mission Data to NASA Boulder, CO – August 17th, 2010 – Next Giant Leap LLC (NGL) is offering NASA lunar mission data on its planned lunar robotic lander mission via the recently announced NASA Innovative Lunar Demonstrations Data (ILDD) program. The ILDD program challenges industry to demonstrate Earth-to-lunar surface flight system capabilities and test technologies including information related to landing using a human mission profile; identification of hazards during landing; precision landing: imagery: and long-duration surface operations. NASA issued the ILDD Broad Agency Announcement on August 6th which will result in multiple small firm-fixed price indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts with a total value up to $30.1 million through 2012. “This NASA announcement will allow for public private partnerships that will maximize the results we’ll see from this new era of lunar exploration.” said William Pomerantz, Senior Director for Space Prizes at the X PRIZE Foundation. “From the start, we’ve worked with NASA to ensure that the technologies and systems that emerge from the Google Lunar X PRIZE will be complementary to NASA’s own efforts, rather than competing with them.” NGL’s planned lunar mission will demonstrate new landing and mobility technologies developed by their team partners. During the mission the craft will send back HD video and other data needed to complete the requirements for capturing the Google Lunar X PRIZE. As the first commercial mission to land on the Moon, NGL will engage the public in an unprecedented way and is offering unique corporate branding opportunities for their mission sponsors. ABOUT NEXT GIANT LEAP Next Giant Leap is a consortium of industry and academia organized to win the Google Lunar X PRIZE. The team's lead systems integrator is Sierra Nevada Corporation, known for its innovation in small spacecraft. In 2008, the Sierra Nevada Corp. Space Systems division was awarded a contract to build 18 Orbcomm satellites with an option for 30 more. Leading the difficult task of final descent and safe landing on the lunar surface is Draper Laboratory. Draper has been involved in space guidance navigation and control since the earliest days of the space program, supporting Apollo, the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station. The Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the leading engineering institution in the United States, is Next Giant Leap's key academic partner. For more information, please visit www.nextgiantleap.com. ABOUT THE GOOGLE LUNAR X PRIZE The $30 million prize purse is segmented into a $20 million Grand Prize, a $5 million Second Prize and $5 million in bonus prizes. To win the Grand Prize, a team must successfully soft land a privately funded spacecraft on the Moon, travel on the lunar surface for a minimum of 500 meters, and transmit video, images and data back to the Earth. For more information about the Google Lunar X PRIZE, please visit www.googlelunarxprize.org.