The Florida-based company is the first to get government permission to fly beyond Earth’s orbit.
Moon Express took one giant leap for private enterprise on Wednesday when it became the first company to receive permission from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to fly beyond Earth’s orbit.
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. The robot will conduct science experiments, send pictures and video to Earth, and travel with commercial cargo, including cremated human remains. The spacecraft is part of the company's mission to “reduce the cost of space exploration,” according to its website.
“It’s been a very steep mountain,” Mr. Richards told Reuters in a telephone interview. “We had to lay the track at the same time that we wanted to do the mission.”
Although the 1967 Outer Space Treaty states that the United States is responsible for non-governmental flights into space, until April 8th, when Moon Express submitted its application, no government agency was considered responsible for this type of flight.
The FAA was the natural choice, as it already has jurisdiction over commercial rocket launches in the United States. The administration led an interagency review of Moon Express's proposal, which included details on how the company would comply with the 1967 treaty.
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http://www.interstellar-news.net/2016/08/next-stop-moon-private-company-moon.html
