“This is the time when humanity is leaving the shores of Earth and all of the future will look back at this moment as the time we became a space-faring species”, said Moon Express CEO Bob Richards.
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Moon Express submitted a formal request to the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation because this agency is in charge of regulating commercial rocket launches.
Moon Express was given the green light following long discussions with the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the White House, the State Department and Nasa.
Eventually, company executives believe that missions to the moon could return valuable minerals to Earth at relatively low costs.
According to analysts, the approval process could serve as precedent for future private moon missions, as also other commercial ventures beyond earth orbit, such as SpaceX’s mission to Mars, set for 2018, or other firms’ plans to mine asteroids for resources. The spacecraft has yet to be manufactured or tested, as well as the rocket itself has never been flown, but has clearance from the government to send the spacecraft.
The US-based private spaceflight company intends to send a probe to the Moon by 2017, however before they did this, they first required regulatory permission from the US government. Richards says they want to explore the moon because there’s trillions of dollars of resources that could benefit Earth. The lander, which is yet to be completed, will travel on a rocket developed by start-up Rocket Lab, which to date has not launched any commercial missions.
They still need to build and test its spacecraft which needs to be able to perform specific tasks to win the $30 million Google Lunar X-Prize competition.
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Until now, privately held companies were restricted to missions on or around Earth, meaning that, as Moon Express co-founder told Space.com’s Mike Wall, “this is not only a milestone, but really a threshold for the entire commercial space industry”. The administration led an interagency review of Moon Express’s proposal, which included details on how the company would comply with the 1967 treaty. “In 15 years, the Moon will be an important part of Earth’s economy, and potentially our second home”. “We have explored all of our seven continents, so why not go to the eighth continent, ” The Los Angeles Times reported.
