“It’s been a very steep mountain”, CEO and founder Bob Richards told Raw Story. Under the launch services contract, Rocket Lab will use its Electron rocket system to launch three missions of Moon Express’ MX-1 lunar lander spacecraft.
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Cheers to all the start-ups as there is no looking beyond and holding on any kind of dream you see.
Other companies planning missions into space include Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, while NASA is also taking advantage of the commercial sector in order to advance its own space exploration efforts.
Moon Express has obtained permission from the US government to launch a company-built robotic spacecraft on a mission to explore the Moon’s surface.
A private company has been granted approval to land on the moon.
At present, commercial ventures have gone as far out as geosynchronous orbit, the telecommunication satellites that fly 22,236 miles above the Earth.
In addition to hopefully winning the X Prize competition, Moon Express plans to mine the moon for rare elements and metals. “Rephrasing John F. Kennedy”, said Naveen Jain, the Moon Express chairman, “we choose to go to the moon not because it’s easy, but because it’s a good business”.
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The company’s 20lb lander – the MX-1 – is created to hop across the moon’s surface. The United States government has allowed a private company to make a trip to the moon, the first of its kind to be made by a private entity, as the government has never before allowed a private space mission beyond our planet’s orbit. If all goes as planned, it will take off the end of 2017 with a rocket produced by Rocket Lab, another start-up, which has now not yet made trade mission. Bob Richards, dot com entrepreneur Naveen Jain and technology developer Dr. Barney Pell. Moon Express eventually intends to mine the moon’s surface for resources, although the initial mission is more concerned with landing in one piece. Both DSI and Moon Express are benefiting from the US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, a new law that grants companies legal ownership over any resources they’re able to mine off Earth.
