Today, history was made when the U.S. House of Representatives passed landmark legislation recognizing and promoting the rights of United States companies to engage in the exploration and extraction of space resources from the Moon and other celestial bodies. This historic legislation was passed as Title IV of the “U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (CSLCA, or H.R. 2262 as amended)”, and provides the first ever codification of private sector mining rights for water and minerals obtained from the Moon.
Moon Express, Bigelow Aerospace, and many other companies are applauding the House for supporting the creation of a stable and predictable environment for private sector development while encouraging investments into the bold new field of space resource exploration and utilization. The “Space Resources and Utilization Act of 2015” protects and supports U.S. interests as private sector companies expand the economic sphere of Earth to the Moon and beyond.
“Our goal is to unlock the resources of the Moon for the benefit of humanity, and Moon Express is grateful to have the backing of the United States in our endeavor,” said Moon Express co-founder and CEO, Bob Richards. “We thank the House and its visionary champions of the bill led by Majority Leader McCarthy (R-CA) and Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) for their leadership and vision in passing this much-needed legislation, and especially wish to thank Representatives Bill Posey (R-FL), Derek Kilmer (D-WA) and Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) for their support of our emerging private sector space resources industry.”
“This bill was elegantly crafted to encourage robust private sector growth while still meeting the U.S.’s obligations under the Outer Space Treaty,” said Mike Gold, Director of DC Operations & Business Growth at Bigelow Aerospace who also serves as the Chair of the Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (“COMSTAC”), the Federal Advisory Committee to the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation. “This legislation is one small step for Congress, and one giant leap for lunar development.”
“We are thrilled to have the support of the U.S. Congress allowing Moon Express to mine precious resources on the Moon for the benefit of humanity,” said Moon Express co-founder and Executive Chairman, Naveen Jain. “We applaud the leadership shown by the House in passing this pivotal legislation and look forward to President Obama signing the bill into law.”
ABOUT MOON EXPRESS
Moon Express, Inc. (MoonEx) is a privately funded commercial space company blazing a trail to the Moon to unlock its mysteries and resources with robotic spacecraft products & services using exponential technologies. Driven by long-term goals of exploring and developing lunar resources for the benefit of humanity, the company has short-term business on-ramps of providing lunar transportation and data services for government and commercial customers. Moon Express has developed the “MX”-family of flexible, scalable spacecraft/landers capable of reaching the lunar surface from Earth orbit on direct or low-energy trajectories, as well as other serving near Earth markets in space robotics. The company is partnered with NASA in its Lunar CATALYST Program and in 2010 Moon Express was awarded a commercial lunar data purchase contract from NASA worth up to $10M. Moon Express is also a leading contender in the $30M Google Lunar XPRIZE competition.
The Moon Express founders, Dr. Robert (Bob) Richards, Naveen Jain, and Dr. Barney Pell, believe in the long term economic potential of the Moon to produce resources essential to humanity’s future on Earth and in space.
For more information about Moon Express, visit: www.moonexpress.com
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