Moon Express

Moon Express (External Link) a California-based company located in the heart of Silicon Valley, Moon Express Inc. was founded in 2010 by Robert D. Richards, Barney Pell, and the billionaire Chairman Naveen Jain , a privately funded commercial space company created to develop the resources of the Moon for the benefit of life on Earth and humanity's future in space. It's future goal is lunar Mining.

NASA has been helping Moon Express, and other space travel companies, as part of its Lunar Initiative, also known as Catalyst, to encourage more companies to pursue space travel.

Moon Express got permission from the Federal Aviation Administration(FAA) 2 August 2016 to send a robotic lander to the moon, the first-ever private company to secure the go-ahead.

It has been conducting testing with the end goal to send the lander to the moon in 2016 (now 2019). Was part of the Google Lunar X Prize competition.

MTV 1X test

Test Flights in Dec 2014 here.

The company has signed an agreement to take over Launch Complexes 17 & 18 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for the lander's development and test flights,

Moon Express MTV-1X Test Flights @ KSC [Dec 2014]

EXPEDITION ONE: LUNAR SCOUT

MX-1E robotic explorer plans to fly aboard the Rocket Lab USA ‘Electron’ rocket. (5 Electron rockets have been ordered)

The Lunar Scout expedition will carrying a diverse manifest of payloads including the International Lunar Observatory, “MoonLight” by the INFN National Laboratories of Frascati and the University of Maryland, and a Celestis memorial flight.

EXPEDITION TWO: LUNAR OUTPOST

SOUTH POLE EXPEDITION

EXPEDITION THREE: HARVEST MOON

LUNAR SAMPLE RETURN

The Harvest Moon expedition may take place by 2020 and includes the first commercial sample return mission, which also begins the business phase of lunar resource prospecting. The lunar samples brought back will be the only privately owned Moon materials on Earth, and could be used to benefit science as well as commercial purposes.

Moon Express Robotic Explorers

Motherboard Visits Moon Express