United States authorized flight plan to the Moon private enterprise – La Prensa

The federal government authorized for the first time a private company, in this case Florida- carry a spacecraft beyond the Earth’s orbit and land on the moon.

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA for its acronym in English) gave approval on Wednesday Moon Express to send to the moon’s surface a vehicle the size of a washing machine that would move on lunar soil by jumping with engine start instead of moving on wheels. “Why crawl when you can fly? “said Bob Richards, director of Moon Express.

He called the moon ship the company plans to create a” bolide phase space “.

Moon Express, based in Cape Canaveral, is planning the release of his ship by the end of next year, probably from New Zealand in a rocket that has not yet been tested, Richards said.

the flight cost $ 10 million it is the first of many planned missions that are expected to earn money through the extraction of lunar natural resources such as platinum and selling dust and moonstones for collection, he said.

obtaining approval-not technically a license, but a determination that would not cause harm and that the company can continue below-”is a milestone and not is unlikely to succeed, “said John Logsdon, George Washington University, an expert on space policy removed.

the company is also competing with other groups for the Google Lunar X Prize the award $ 20 million will for the first private company to put a rover on the Moon that can move after a little.

But Richards said that is not the main way through which the company expects to make money.

Richards said the first flight has five customers, including a company that is selling ashes opportunity to send people to the moon. The ashes of his father will be on the flight.

He said they used to sing the song Fly Me To The Moon (Take me flying Moon) to his father, “and I’m going to do,” he added. The company used the version of the song recorded by Diana Krall and her tone telephone standby.

However, Richards said the company has not finished building the browser and hopes to present a new design in September, which, he said, “is about the size of R2-D2 “, an astromech droid fiction of Star Wars, and will be powered by peroxide hydrogen, which is environmentally friendly.

The plan is to fly in a rocket built by rocket Lab, a company that has not yet released any ship.

If that does not work, the approval of the FAA allow them to simply hire another company, such as SpaceX , Richards said.