About Next Giant Leap

About company

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.