The American company Moon Express has received permission from the government to send in 2017 robotic lander to the moon, announced the company’s founder Bob Richards. Moon Express will be the first private company that was permitted to fly beyond earth’s orbit.
According to Richards, the permit was obtained by the results of extensive consultations his company with the Federal aviation administration (issuing authority), the state Department, NASA and other Federal agencies. The mission will last for two weeks. The device will be delivered to the moon commercial goods, including cremated human remains, as well as conduct some scientific experiments and make videos and photos.
As noted by Reuters, the Federal aviation administration will form a regulatory framework for the conduct of commercial expeditions to the moon, asteroids and Mars. The US authorities are responsible for compliance with their non-state companies engaged in space flight, the intergovernmental Treaty on outer space of 1967.
Other private companies plan to obtain the appropriate permissions in the near future. In particular, the founder of the American company SpaceX Elon Musk intends to launch in 2018, the spacecraft to Mars. In February the government announced its intention to attract investors to the new program on development of space natural resources, in particular minerals on asteroids, located between the Moon and Mars. Luxembourg was the first country, which started a similar program. Interest in participating in this program have expressed the American company Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries that are developing technologies for the exploitation of the resources of the asteroids.
