Washington, Aug 4.- The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States has authorized, for the first time, flights by the private enterprise Luna Express, which will employ robotic probes to scan the moon.
The company, headquartered in Florida, has obtained permission from the US government to send commercial and scientific missions to the Moon.
The company's goal is to take pictures and videos from the moon and transmit them to Earth.
In addition, it will send, for the first time, cremated remains of people who want to be buried on the Moon.
For its operations, Luna Express will have the assistance of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This supervision is based on the 1967 Treaty, which gives the US government the international responsibility for all space flights made from its national territory by non-governmental entities.
However, NASA reported it will not regulate the activities of Luna Express on the surface of the moon.
The Luna Express founder, Bob Richards, said that achieving their goal was hard, because the FAA is responsible for issuing credentials for commercial rocket launches in the USA; and so far, the only private missions authorized have not gone beyond Earth's orbit.
Experts point out that this decision opens a new era of space exploitation.