Moon Express, a private space company, has been given permission to land its robotic MX-1 probe on the lunar surface in 2017.
The historic ruling was made by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and also went through the White House, State Department and NASA and other federal agencies before being rubber-stamped.
The California-based firm submitted an application for the lunar mission on April 8, 2016 and had it approved on August 3.
"The Moon Express 2017 mission approval is a landmark decision by the U.S. government and a pathfinder for private sector commercial missions beyond the Earth's orbit," said Moon Express co-founder and CEO Bob Richards.
"We are now free to set sail as explorers to Earth's eighth continent, the moon, seeking new Knowledge and resources to expand Earth's economic sphere for the benefit of humanity".
Until now, all private space company missions, such as those from Elon Musk's SpaceX, have been limited to Earth orbit.
The ruling does not extend to other companies or future missions, all of which "will be will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis", according to the FAA. The company plans to launch the MX-1 lander to the moon in late 2017, on top of a rocket provided by aerospace firm Rocket Lab.
"In the immediate future, we envision bringing precious resources, metals and moon rocks back to Earth," said co-founder and chairman Naveen Jain.
If successful, the mission could bag the company the Google Lunar X Prize, which was announced in 2007 and aims to reward the first private company to land a robot on the moon.
Previously, only state-funded missions from the US, USSR and China have completed successful soft-landings on the lunar surface. The 47th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 moon landing was marked on July 20, 2016.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
