The US’s Federal Aviation Administration will extend its framework for licensing space launches to licensing developments on the Moon. Are we facing a lunar land grab? Not exactly. The report is a letter from the FAA to Bigelow Aerospace, a company that has developed expandable living modules for the ISS and hopes to put inflatable, modular stations on the Moon and Mars.
The letter, dated from December, is all about whether Bigelow would be able to claim the right to develop a habitat on a particular part of the Moon, without any other mission or project interfering. According to Reuters, the FAA says that Bigelow’s theoretical development would be protected. In its letter, the agency said it plans to leverage its "existing launch licensing authority to encourage private sector investments in space systems by ensuring that commercial activities can be conducted on a non-interference basis," continuing, "we recognise the private sector’s need to protect its assets and personnel on the moon or on other celestial bodies.
After all, the FAA does control how private companies launch craft into space from the US. It would make sense that the agency plans to serve as a regulatory agency for exploration on celestial bodies and planets, too. A Bigelow exec told Reuters that the FAA’s letter "doesn’t mean that there’s ownership of the moon," but that "it just means that somebody else isn’t licensed to land on top of you or land on top of where exploration and prospecting activities are going on, which may be quite a distance from the lunar station."