Planetary Resources Welcomes US Space Act with Open Arms

Planetary Resources applauded US President BarackObama for signing US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, or the US Space Act. The company is very happy with passing of this legislation because it will be the one that will be benefitted the most.

Founded in 2010, Planetary Resources aims to expand earth’s natural resource base. Meaning that the company’s major goal is to extract water, minerals and other valuable materials from asteroids and sell them.

The passing of the US Space Act 2015 has provided the private companies protected ownership of materials that are extracted from celestial bodies.

Planetary Resources since long has been asking Congress to provide it legal clarity as its investors were raising concerns over the potential conflict between the company's mission and the Outer Space Treaty of 1967.

“There are many investors who had questions about this issue. Now, with this milestone behind us, we can continue those conversations with the support of United States law”, Chris Lewicki, president and chief engineer of Planetary Resources, told Space.com.

Eric Anderson, Planetary Resources co-founder, said in a press release that passing of this legislation is the single greatest recognition of property rights ever made in the history. This legislation sets up a similar supportive framework that created the great economies of history, and will encourage the sustained development of space.

Another company with asteroid-mining ambitions, Deep Space Industries, also expressed its happiness on passing of the legislation.