The federal government will permit a US startup to send a robotic spacecraft to the moon next year, paving the way for the company to be the first non-government organization to land on the moon.
Moon Express announced on Wednesday morning that it had been granted approval for its planned 2017 lunar mission. Previously, commercial companies have traveled only within Earth’s orbit.
“With this landmark ruling, Moon Express has become the first private company approved to literally go out of this world as a pioneer of commercial space missions beyond Earth orbit,” the commercial space company said in a statement on its website.
The US, the Soviet Union and China are the only entities to have successfully landed on the moon. The outer space treaty, which regulates government exploration of the celestial world, was adopted by the United Nations and went into effect in 1967. The treaty requires “non-governmental entities” to receive “authorization and continuing supervision by the appropriate State Party to the Treaty”.
Moon Express submitted its request in April to the Federal Aviation Administration, which made a favorable determination on 20 July, according to an FAA fact sheet. The Florida-based company was founded in 2010 to develop the moon’s resources.
The company is one of 16 teams aiming to be the first commercial entity to land on the moon and to net the $20m that comes with the feat, courtesy of Google. In 2007, Google launched its “lunar X Prize” promising $20m to the first company to land a privately funded rover on the moon. Three of the 16 teams still in the running are based in the US, although Moon Express is the only one so far to receive approval.
In a statement, the FAA said it would “continue to work with the commercial space industry to provide support for non-traditional missions on a case-by-case basis”.
“Space travel is our only path forward to ensure our survival and create a limitless future for our children,” Naveen Jain, the company’s co-founder and chairman, said in a statement.
