The document then made its way through the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Department of Defense, NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Federal Communications Commission, Richards said.
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Armed with the go-ahead from the Federal Aviation Administration, the Mountain View, Calif., company plans to launch its unmanned MX-1 lunar lander next year.
After six years of effort and a roughly $30 million investment, space-exploration startup Moon Express Inc. just became the first commercial venture to get USA regulatory authorization for a mission beyond Earth’s orbit.
The Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) congratulates Moon Express, Inc., on its US government authorization for a planned robotic mission to the Moon in 2017. The relative speed with which it happened and the responsiveness of the government officials involved demonstrated the commitment of the United States to facilitate the commercial development of the moon, Richards opined.
“Moon Express applauds efforts underway by the U.S. Congress and Executive Branch to establish a permanent regulatory framework to authorize commercial activities beyond Earth orbit”, said Moon Express cofounder and CEO Bob Richards. Several worldwide competitors want to win the $20 million first prize that comes with being the first privately-developed spacecraft to land on the moon, travel at least half a kilometer across the surface, and return photos and videos.
The FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, which issued the permission for Moon Express, is likely to issue licenses for other private space ventures, possibly ranging from satellite fix and servicing space labs to asteroid mining. In October 2015, Moon Express announced a launch contract with Rocket Lab USA for 3 launches to the Moon beginning in 2017.
Millions of internet users took part in an online contest to select its name, which comes from the pet of a moon goddess in Chinese mythology. In the past, such missions were all devised and funded by governmental entities, which had clear-cut responsibility to authorize and monitor them.
Moon Express can now focus exclusively on the financial and technical challenges of the 2017 moon mission, which will begin with the launch of the company’s MX-1 lander atop a Rocket Lab Electron booster. “We don’t know what is the “Pokémon Go” or the Angry Birds of the moon”. The government is working on fixing that, but for now Moon Express managed to get around the problem by sharing more information about its goals and plans than the government asked for.
But Richards said that’s not the main way the firm hopes to make money. The company’s plan is to hitch a ride to low Earth orbit aboard a small rocket created to haul tiny satellites.
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“In the immediate future, we envision bringing precious resources, metals and moon rocks back to Earth”, said co-founder and chairman Naveen Jain. “To me, the moon is really like worldwide waters, but if you obtain resources, you do get to own the resources”.
