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Lunar landing company Moon Express has secured significant funding, which means one thing for Space Coast: new jobs.
Moon Express, which plans to send a spacecraft to mine the moon, has raised $ 12.5 million this week, thanks in part to an investment by Miami-based Minerva Capital Group. This will allow Moon Express to build its facilities at Launch Complexes 17 and 18 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base.
"We are beginning renovations to reuse these facilities in a commercial complex for engineering, manufacturing and [testing]", Wrote the founder and general manager Bob Richards in an email with Orlando Sentinel.
These renovations to the former United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket plates will likely create some 50 new jobs, reaching a hundred or more "as we intensify our lunar mission activities in the coming years," said Richards.
Space Florida, the state's spaceport authority, and Florida's transportation department have allocated about $ 2 million in incentives to relocate Moon Express to its 32-hectare space on the Space Coast. California and Alabama in 2016.
The company demolished the two historic launch towers of Complex 17 in July, paving the way for the continuation of Moon Express's renovation plans. The additional funding this week was another cogwheel needed to move this wheel forward.
Moon Express has now secured more than $ 60 million in private financing, said Richards, putting Richards on a "solid financial ground" for his next goal: winning a contract with the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program of the NASA. The program calls for the design of small lunar landers to collect samples of the moon's surface and is expected to announce its first suppliers by the end of the year.
"The purpose of the [NASA program] The government can count on several suppliers that the government can use to transport payloads to the lunar surface. This is what Moon Express has been working on for many years, "said Dale Ketcham, Vice President of Government and External Relations for Florida area. "By overcoming the challenges of fundraising and technology development, they are well positioned."
The company also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Canadian Space Agency on Wednesday to potentially use moon lunar orbiter and moon landing systems to send payloads into space.
In the end, Moon Express hopes to send its R2-D2 satellite on its maiden voyage to the moon in July 2020, using a rocket from California-based Rocket Lab.
As for the future, Moon Express is "agnostic," said Richards.
"Although our maiden flight may be on a [Rocket Lab] Electron, "he said," we will need to launch larger rockets to meet NASA's growing demand for larger payload capacities under the CLPS program. "
Want more news from the space? Follow Go For Launch on Facebook. Contact the reporter at [email protected] or 407-420-5660; Twitter @ChabeliH
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