The FAA said it received the company’s request for a Payload Review and Determination on the MX-1E spacecraft in April.
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Moon Express remains in a tight race with Israeli start-up SpaceIL to win the $25 million prize for completing the first landing or a $5 million award for making the second landing by a private company on the lunar surface.
“Gas station of the sky” might not have the utopian ring of NASA’s humanity-broadening missions into space, but Moon Express claims it envisions the moon as an important part of the Earth’s future economy. The company considers the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval to be a landmark decision.
The Florida-based company added that the approval begins “a new era of ongoing commercial lunar exploration and discovery, unlocking the enormous potential of the moon’s valuable resources”. Upon release from the launch, a spacecraft will jettison a capsule to land on the Moon.
“The Moon Express 2017 mission approval is a landmark decision by the USA government and a pathfinder for [the] private sector commercial mission beyond the Earth’s orbit”, said co-founder and CEO Bob Richards.
The U.S. government’s approval for Moon Express would help pave the way for other private companies to explore extraterrestrial bodies. He said they used to sing the song “Fly Me To The Moon” to him “and I’m going to”.
The FAA mission approval is restricted to this single mission, and any future missions will need to receive similar clearance from the agency. Various missions have been sent to Moon till date.
The Lunar X prize, which was announced in 2007, called to finance a spacecraft that can send back high-resolution images and videos of the Moon and move by around 500 meters. “In the near future we want to bring back to Earth precious resources, lunar metals and stones”, said Naveen Jain.
It’s a small step for Uncle Sam, but a sign of much bigger things to come: For the first time ever, the U.S. government has OK’d a private firm’s mission beyond low Earth orbit – in fact, to the moon. The most recent mission to the Moon was in December 2013, by China’s Change 3.
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Jain says the first flight is planned for late next year.
