California firm wins $1 mln lunar prizeA California-based firm was named winner of a one-million-dollar prize backed by US space agency NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. to design a craft capable of a lunar landing, a statement said Tuesday. Masten Space Systems were declared winners of the Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) is an aerospace and defense conglomerate that is the result of the 1994 purchase of Grumman by Northrop. The company is the third largest defense contractor for the U.S. Lunar Lander X-Prize Challenge following a competition in the Mojave Desert Mojave or Mohave Desert, c.15,000 sq mi (38,850 sq km), region of low, barren mountains and flat valleys, 2,000 to 5,000 ft (610–1,524 m) high, S Calif.; part of the Great Basin of the United States. last week involving several teams of space entrepreneurs. Under the terms of the competition, teams had to launch a rocket and then simulate a lunar landing before refueling and returning to lunar orbit In astronomy, lunar orbit (also known as a Selenocentric orbit) refers just to the orbit of the Moon around the Earth. See Orbit of the Moon. As used in the space program, this refers not to the orbit of Earth's Moon, but to orbits around that Moon by various manned . Entries were required to ascend to a height of 50 meters, before landing safely on a replica lunar surface The lunar surface (or the surface of the moon) differs greatly from that of Earth. Different topography exists and soil composition and properties differ. Environmental factors affect the lunar surface. after a minimum of three minutes flying time. The X-Prize foundation is also running a competition in conjunction with Google, offering 20 million dollars to the first privately funded team that lands a robot on the Moon and transmits image and data back to Earth. 
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