Reached out for comments, co-founder Naveen Jain said that the space travel is an assurance that we can create limitless future for our children. The landing made China the third nation after the United States and Russian Federation to land on the moon’s surface.
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The Federal Aviation Administration announced its approval Wednesday, following consultations with the White House, State Department and the USA space agency NASA.
Florida-based Moon Express was granted permission by the United State government to undertake a robotic lunar landing in 2017, marking the first time a non-governmental entity has been afforded such approval.
Artist’s concept of Moon Express’ MX-1 lunar lander on its way to the moon.
“This approval makes us the first company ever in history to ever be granted an approval to leave Earth’s orbit and land on a celestial body”, Jain told NBC News.
“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.
The first private mission to the moon has been approved by the US government, but don’t expect to have your moon trip greenlit anytime soon.
“We have solved the regulatory barrier that was preventing us from launching to the Moon in 2017, so we’re back to focusing on the challenges we can solve ourselves: building the Moon Express spacecraft and business”, says Richards. “On Aug. 3, Moon Express announced this mission approval, which came out of the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation”.
While proposals to land on Mars must allay concerns about disturbing any possible life, the lifeless moon has nothing that Earth-borne microbes could hurt.
There is still work for Moon Express before their capsule touches the moon. The spacecraft is part of the company’s mission to “reduce the cost of space exploration”, according to its website. The administration led an interagency review of Moon Express’s proposal, which included details on how the company would comply with the 1967 treaty.
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So far, commercial companies are only able to operate around the Earth but no company has landed on the Moon yet.
