Elon Musk declares "the time has come": DOGE lunar mission to launch in December, is this for real?

Elon Musk has dropped another “nuclear bomb” on social media.

On November 4th, the head of SpaceX dug up his old post from April 2021 - “SpaceX will send a real Dogecoin to the real moon” - and then added three words: The time has come.

The crypto community has exploded in an instant.

Is the “joke” from four years ago about to become reality?

Back in 2021, when Musk casually tweeted, the price of DOGE surged nearly 30% in just a few minutes. Just when everyone thought this was another “marketing stunt,” a few weeks later SpaceX officially announced: The DOGE-1 lunar mission has officially started, and they really accepted Dogecoin as payment.

This project is operated by the Canadian company Geometric Energy Corporation, and is essentially a CubeSat micro-satellite mission – with all transactions settled in DOGE. According to the plan, this satellite will be launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket.

If successful, this will be the first fully funded space mission by cryptocurrency in history. The Federal Communications Commission has issued a license, with documents indicating it is valid until “two years after the mission launch” or “October 30, 2025”—whichever comes first.

The market is not so exuberant this time.

Interestingly, this time the market reacted much more calmly.

After the news came out, the price of DOGE jumped from $0.172 to $0.178, and then… it was gone. Soon it fell back due to selling pressure from the market.

This stands in stark contrast to the 30% surge in 2021. What does this indicate? The players in the crypto space have matured. Now, people won't blindly rush in just because a big influencer shouts; they pay more attention to whether the project has real value support.

The entire cryptocurrency market is indeed under great pressure: Bitcoin has fallen below $106,000, and Ethereum cannot hold above $3,600. In this environment, if the DOGE-1 mission can truly materialize, it would have a different significance.

From Meme to Real Business Scenarios

This satellite is not just for show—it will perform Earth observation and IoT data transmission tasks.

In other words, Dogecoin may really be involved in a value closed loop in the real world. Tom Ochinero, Vice President of Commercial Sales at SpaceX, once stated: “DOGE-1 will prove that cryptocurrency can be used beyond Earth's orbit and can set an example for interstellar trade.”

What’s different this time compared to four years ago is: the technical review has been completed, and the task process is clear. The launch window is set for December 2025, not just empty talk.

Musk is turning that year's “space rhetoric” into something tangible.

The December launch window is worth watching

The market is now waiting for the developments in December.

This mission is not just a technical test, but also a hardcore attempt of cryptocurrency in real-world application scenarios. If DOGE-1 successfully goes to space and completes its mission, those who mock “Meme coins are useless” every day may have to reevaluate the positioning of Dogecoin.

After all, there is only one project in the world that can use DOGE to purchase rocket launch services.