Companies Want a Piece of the Moon

Photo Credit: Mark Garlick Words & Pictures Ltd/Science Photo Library/Corbis

By Irene Klotz

Corporations are interested in partnering with NASA for lunar and other deep-space initiatives, but will want property rights in exchange, a NASA-commissioned report released on Tuesday shows.

The U.S. space agency already is relying on private industry to fly cargo to the International Space Station, a $100 billion research laboratory that flies about 250 miles above Earth. NASA has station cargo delivery contracts worth a combined $3.5 billion with privately owned Space Exploration Technologies, also known as SpaceX, and with Orbital Sciences Corp.