Lunar Blast Permit

  Google recently announced its sponsorship of the Lunar X Prize, which awards $20 million to the first private firm to land a robotic rover on the moon by the end of 2012. Will these companies need special permission to put something on the moon? Not exactly. You don’t need anyone to sign off on a lunar landing, but you do need a permit to launch anything into space from Earth.
 Any American citizen who wants to launch a rocket or other kind of spacecraft into orbit must obtain authorization from the FAA, as would any foreigner who launches within U.S. territory. The FAA regulates the commercial sector’s space activities by requiring parties to obtain launch and re-entry licenses. The office spends up to six months vetting launch plans for potential harm to the public that could occur if something went awry—like falling debris or the formation of a toxic cloud from an explosion. During the review of an application, the FAA also investigates a plan’s compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act, with deciding factors being whether the pollution from the launch could harm a historic site or the natural environment, or if noise from the launch could be detrimental to surrounding plant and animal life. To get a launch license, a company must prove that it could take financial responsibility if anything went wrong, and that its activities won’t threaten foreign policy or national security interests Additionally, a lunar launch team in the United States would have to get permission from the Federal Communications Commission to use government communications frequencies while in orbit.