In a monumental decision, Moon Express, a spaceflight company, was given an approval by the US government to proceed with their lunar mission. To date, no commercial company has conducted a mission beyond Earth orbit.
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“To rephrase John F. Kennedy, we choose to go to the moon not because it’s easy, but because it’s profitable”, Moon Express Chairman Naveen Jain told Popular Science.
The plan is to fly on a rocket built by Rocket Lab, which has yet to launch a ship.
Moon Express says that this trip to the moon will allow it to evaluate its resources and plan future trips.
The landmark decision by the United States government will send a private company to deep space for the very first time.
The Federal Aviation Administration announced its approval Wednesday, following consultations with the White House, State Department and the USA space agency NASA.
Cape Canaveral-based Moon Express wants to be the first private company to land on the moon.
Other agencies and organizations that will financially help Moon Express on its mission include the International Lunar Observatory, Celestis and the University of Maryland in partnership with the National Laboratories of Frascati, Italy.
The FAA mission approval is restricted to this single mission, and any future missions will need to receive similar clearance from the agency.
If successful, the mission could bag the company the Google Lunar X Prize, which was announced in 2007 and aims to reward the first private company to land a robot on the moon.
In a first, the Federal Aviation Administration has given license to a private U.S. company, co-founded by an Indian American, to launch a spacecraft and land on moon in 2017.
The company’s goal is to develop low-priced spacecraft and to explore the resources on the moon, he said. The grand prize is 20 million and goes to the first team who succeeds at moving 500 meters and also sending HD videos and pictures back to Earth first.
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The governments of U.S., China and the former Soviet Union have landed rovers on Mars, with the Chinese Jade Rabbit rover just retiring.
