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Well there is a first time for everything they say. As of August 3, 2016 a private company has gained permission to land on the Moon. So just why would some private company want or even need to go to the Moon?

California based Moon-Express plans to launch commercial flights to the Moon in order to exploit its resources. They have gained the approval from our government for the 2017 planned robotic lunar landing. Bob Richards, the CEO and co-founder of Moon-Express has stated that this is a threshold for commercial space industry.

It is said that companies before this have only been able to operate on or around Earth. Even though this approval is exclusive for Moon-Express it shall be an important regulatory guide for deep-space commercial activity. This was expressed by Mr. Richards.

On April 8, 2016 Moon-Express submitted an application to the FAA and it proceeded to make its way all the way through our U.S. State Department, U.S. Department of Defense, NASA, the NOAA, and the FCC. So now their focus will be on their financial and technical challenges for this mission that is set for the last part of 2017.

As Moon- Express focuses on this maiden voyage of what is called the MX-1 they are also hoping to land the grand prize win of the Google Lunar-X 30-million-dollar competition. This competition entails landing the first robotic vehicle on the Moon by the end of the year 2017. The grand prize is 20 million and goes to the first team who succeeds at moving 500 meters and also sending HD videos and pictures back to Earth first. Just imagine, possibly living on the Moon someday very soon.