President Vladimir Putin wants to strengthen cooperation in space with China and scale back partnerships with the West
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The cryptocurrency mantra "to the moon" is literally a launch away for the world's first dog-themed meme coin, Dogecoin (DOGE), as the planned SpaceX "DOGE-1" Moon mission has achieved a new milestone bringing it closer to flying the token out of this world.

The DOGE-funded SpaceX Doge-1 Moon Mission has secured crucial regulatory approval from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). This clearance is a significant step toward obtaining the ultimate license from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which will mark another milestone for the project.

In 2021, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced that his spacecraft engineering company would unveil the Dogecoin-themed mission to the moon in the first quarter of 2022.

The project is in collaboration with decentralized finance incubator ZenX Labs, Smart exchange ecosystem Unizen and Geometric Energy Corporation (GEC). The team is tasked to design and launch a 40-kilogram CubeSat, whose mission, apart from launching, is to deliver a new use case for the cryptocurrency industry.

Once launched, the CubeSat will orbit the moon to collect spatial intelligence using cameras and sensors. The collected data will be sent back to the Earth for further analysis by GEC.

The DOGE-1 satellite is designed to feature a mini screen that will display ads, images, and logos, with the visuals being broadcasted to Earth as part of the satellite's special capabilities.

This project is historic, especially for the crypto industry, as it is the first satellite launch to be fully funded in DOGE cryptocurrency.

Geometric Energy Corporation CEO Samuel Reid confirmed the approval of DOGE-1 X-Band by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration but said that the project still awaits the FCC license grant, which will enable communications in both the S-Band and X-Band.

"The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (@NTIAgov), a Department of Commerce (@CommerceGov) agency, approved DOGE-1 X-Band (0083-EX-CN-2022 on http://ntia.doc.gov) We have yet to get the FCC license grant which will address X-Band and S-Band," the CEO said in a post on X.

With the cryptocurrency market enjoying the bull market, Dogecoin was trading in the green zone at $$0.09015 as of 3:40 a.m. ET on Monday with a 24-hour trading volume up by 62.07% at $843.86 million.

DOGE's price action represented a 5.24% increase in the past 24 hours and a 12.0% gain over the past seven days.

Data from CoinMarketCap revealed that Dogecoin's circulating supply stands at 142.09B DOGE, while its value continued to climb at 5.33% at a $12.79 billion market cap.

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