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WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- The Google Lunar XPRIZE announced Tuesday that no one will win the decade-long 30-million-U.S.-dollar competition aimed at sending the first private mission to the Moon.
"After close consultation with our five finalist Google Lunar XPRIZE teams over the past several months, we have concluded that no team will make a launch attempt to reach the Moon by the March 31, 2018 deadline," XPRIZE Foundation founder Peter Diamandis and CEO Marcus Shingles said in a statement.
"This literal 'moonshot' is hard, and while we did expect a winner by now, due to the difficulties of fundraising, technical and regulatory challenges, the grand prize of the 30-million-dollar Google Lunar XPRIZE will go unclaimed," they added.
XPRIZE said it's exploring a number of ways to proceed, including finding a new title sponsor to provide another prize or continuing the Lunar XPRIZE as a non-cash competition.
The five remaining teams in the competition are SpaceIL, Moon Express, Synergy Moon, Team Indus, and Team Hakuto.