Race to the moon still on even without Google's $20-mn prize for the winner

The team most likely to get to the moon first, the non-profit SpaceIL, is attempting the feat mostly to prove it can be done

Google called off its race to the moon weeks ago, when it became clear no private explorer would complete the trip by the March 31 deadline. That won’t stop at least three teams from Israel, Japan and the U.S., who say their missions are still a go, with or without the contest's $20 million prize.

“We are full steam ahead,” said Yigal Harel, program director at SpaceIL, the Israeli team that plans a soft-landing on the moon later this year.

When the Lunar XPrize was introduced in 2007, interest in moon exploration was at a low. No government had landed