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The X Prize Foundation decided that Masten had a better landing accuracy than was achieved by Armadillo Aerospace of Rockwall, Texas, which got $500,000 for second place.
The teams flew robotic rockets that had to rise more than 160 feet (49 meters), stay airbourne for at least 180 seconds while travelling to a rocky landing pad, and then fly back to the starting point.
The flight profile simulates what would be required to descend from lunar orbit, land on the moon and then lift off again to return to lunar orbit.
NASA put up $2 million in prizes for the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge as an incentive to spur development of technology by space entrepreneurs.
In a less-demanding lower level of the competition, Armadillo was first and won $350,000 while Masten got $150,000 for second place.
A father-son team called Unreasonable Rocket were less successful during the weekend in Cantil, California. One rocket called Blue Ball ran out of fuel in the lower level challenge. Its second rocket, Silver Ball, which was intended for the top level, was wrecked in a test while tethered to a crane.
Andrew Petro, NASA's Centennial Challenge program manager at NASA headquarters in Washington, DC, said that the contest had achieved the intended effect.
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