Don’t let memes be dreams: SpaceX will send a Dogecoin-funded satellite to the moon

Elon Musk has pledged to send a satellite to the moon that will be entirely funded by the meme-inspired cryptocurrency Dogecoin.

SpaceX, the space transportation firm helmed by Elon Musk, has promised to send a satellite mission to the moon in 2022 that will be financed by Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency similar to bitcoin that features the endearing, albeit bewildered-looking face of a Shiba Inu dog, and it’s surely not the only face that will look bewildered upon this bizarre news.

SpaceX launching satellite Doge-1 to the moon next year

– Mission paid for in Doge
– 1st crypto in space
– 1st meme in space

To the mooooonnn!!https://t.co/xXfjGZVeUW

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2021

The announcement was made on Musk’s personal Twitter account, accompanied by the video of an ironic song featuring meme upon meme flashing up on the screen, amid cultish veneration of the man who calls himself the “technoking” but to whom the song refers as “Daddy Elon”.

Dogecoin may have started just as a joke, but after Musk’s championing it became the fourth-largest cryptocurrency; that is, until its value cratered once again following Musk openly describing it as a “hustle” during his stint hosting Saturday Night Live.

 

While guest-starring on the aggressively mediocre weekly comedy sketch show, Musk revealed that he has Asperger’s syndrome, and also cracked jokes about his idiosyncratic Twitter feed and the name he gave to his son (X Æ A-Xii, pronounced like “cat running over a keyboard” as the billionaire quipped in his monologue). 

While he happily described himself as the man who “reinvented electric cars” and is “sending humans to Mars on a rocket ship”, the sketches in which he starred were somewhat less successful than either Tesla or SpaceX, with one baffling bit seeing the billionaire cast as Wario in a cartoonish courtroom cross-examination that was about as funny as… well, actually being cross-examined in a courtroom. 

Elon Musk has certainly won a large following for his ambitiously futuristic projects, singular sense of humour, and off-beat charisma – not to mention the billions in his bank account. We’ll be sure to follow whatever he does next, though it will surely be as unpredictable as the market value of Dogecoin.