The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has given permission for the first private company to send a spacecraft to the Moon.
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The company plans to fly a suitcase-sized robot to the moon for a two-week mission in 2017, said Bob Richards, the company’s co-founder and chief executive officer, Reuters reported.
“Space travel is our only path forward to ensure our survival and create a limitless future for our children”, commented company co-founder Naveen Jain in a statement.
Until now it was only under the control of the government.
Moon Express is now in competition for the Google Lunar XPrize, which promises to award a $20 million grand prize to the first team to successfully land a privately funded rover on the moon, travel 500 meters, and transmit back high definition video and images.
It has yet to finish its moon lander, which will be carried in late 2017 by a rocket made by Rocket Lab, another startup, which has not yet launched any commercial missions.
Cheers to all the start-ups as there is no looking beyond and holding on any kind of dream you see.
This image provided by Moon Express on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2015 shows an illustration of the company’s landing vehicle on the surface of Earth’s moon.
The FAA’s approval, which makes Moon Express the first private company to have clearance to land on Earth’s closest cosmic neighbor, will undoubtedly revolutionize the industry. This means that Moon Express and many other commercial spacecrafts will be able to mine the resources from outer space.
The Moon Express team is still light years away from sending people to the moon, he said. “We had to lay the track at the same time that we wanted to do the mission”.
So far, only government missions in the United States have flown spacecraft beyond the Earth’s orbit. Richards says they want to explore the moon because there’s trillions of dollars of resources that could benefit Earth.
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Moon Express’ plans were hampered with hesitance from the Obama administration. Moon Express was forced to get a regulatory “patch” and allow the government to directly oversee the flight.
