Any organization wishing to accomplish a major spaceflight goal must address two basic sets of problems—rocket science and political science. And while the technical challenges of spaceflight are considerable, it’s arguable that political science remains the greater of these two hurdles. Building spacecraft and rockets requires lots of money, after all, and due to international law they can’t just be launched from anywhere to anywhere.

So it is no small achievement for the private, US-based Moon Express to have conquered the political science part of sending a rover to the Moon. Last August, after a lengthy regulatory process, the company received permission from the US government to send a commercial mission beyond low Earth orbit. And on Friday, the company announced that it has successfully raised an additional $20 million, meaning it has full funding for its maiden lunar mission. “Now it’s just about the rocket science stuff,” said company co-founder and Chief Executive Bob Richards. That, he realizes, remains a formidable challenge.

Moon Express is one of five entrants in the Google Lunar X Prize competition to finalize a launch contract. Each of the teams is competing to become the first to send a rover to the lunar surface by the end of this year, have it travel 500 meters, and transmit high-definition imagery back to Earth. First prize is $20 million.

It’s not clear whether any of the teams—SpaceIL from Israel, Moon Express, US-based Synergy Moon, Team Indus of India, and Hakuto of Japan—will succeed. Only the United States, Soviet Union, and China have ever softly landed on the Moon and deployed a rover, let alone any privately funded company. And several of the teams with launch contracts are relying on unproven boosters, including Moon Express.

Focusing on rocket science

But now, at least, Moon Express can focus on rocket science. In an interview, Richards explained that the company is working to fine-tune the propulsion system for its MX-1 spacecraft, which operates partially on hydrogen peroxide for maneuvering and kerosene fuel for major orbital transfers. Moon Express plans to begin integrating the MX-1 at its Cape Canaveral-based facilities in Florida in July and then transfer the vehicle to New Zealand for launch in October.

Moon Express has a contract to fly with Rocket Lab, which plans to begin tests on its Electron rocket in the next month or so. According to Richards, Moon Express is launch number eight on the company’s manifest, which would mean Rocket Lab would have to fly eight missions on its unproven vehicle this year for Moon Express for a chance to win the X Prize.

“This is not my first space rodeo, and there’s no illusion here about how hard it is and how much has to go right for us to meet the schedule in front of us,” Richards said. “It might be on the ragged edge of the possible, but that’s what entrepreneurship is all about.”

If Moon Express succeeds in launching by the end of the year, the current plan involves making a single Earth orbit before performing a translunar injection burn and flying a four day journey before entering lunar orbit. The company is not committed to any landing site on the Moon, and it has a primary goal of landing “safely and softly.” It likely will be somewhere close to and south of the equator.

While the company wants to win the X Prize, Moon Express has a long-term vision. In addition to satisfying the requirements of the X Prize, the MX-1 spacecraft will also carry small payloads for some commercial customers, and it will collect data, video, and images for its business purposes. Over time, Moon Express hopes to become the go-to company for delivering commercial payloads to the lunar surface and a vehicle for NASA to do science there as well.