United States: space resources
National laws, government authorizations and organizations based in United States in this dataset.
Guides: Space resources laws by country; Authorizations explained.
National laws and instruments in effect
5U.S. Commercial Space Launch Activities (51 U.S.C. chapter 509) - payload review authority
U.S. launch and reentry licensing statute administered by the FAA. Section 50904(c) is the basis for FAA payload reviews of payloads that need no other federal license; it is the mechanism used for…
U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act of 2015, Title IV (Space Resource Exploration and Utilization Act of 2015)
U.S. statute (Pub. L. 114-90, Title IV) providing that a U.S. citizen engaged in commercial recovery of a space resource is entitled to resources obtained, in accordance with applicable law and U.S.…
U.S. Executive Order 13914 (6 April 2020): Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources
Presidential executive order stating U.S. policy that Americans should have the right to engage in commercial exploration, recovery and use of space resources consistent with applicable law, that the…
U.S. Executive Order 14335 (13 August 2025): Enabling Competition in the Commercial Space Industry - Sec. 5 novel space activity authorization
Executive order directing the Secretary of Commerce to propose an individualized mission authorization process for activities covered by OST Art. VI that no existing U.S. regulatory framework clearly…
U.S. presidential proclamation (3 November 2026): The American Declaration of Freedom in Space
Presidential proclamation stating that the solar system and all of outer space beyond Earth are the province of all humans and are open to exploration, development, use and a permanent presence by…
Authorizations
Independent research, not an official registry.
| Country | Holder and mission | Instrument | Granted | Linked mission |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | FAA-led interagency payload review: Moon Express MX-1E (2016)Holder: Moon Express, Inc. | Favorable payload determination | 2016Granted | Moon Express MX-1E first lunar mission (Google Lunar XPRIZE attempt)Not flown (stalled) |
Organizations based here
37| Organization | Country | Targets | Roles | Highest evidence | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AeroFly LLCU.S. company listed in Brookings, South Dakota in federal award records, developing lunar-regolith conveyance and auger-based water-vapor… | United States | Moon | Extraction, Processing / ISRU | Targeted | Active |
| Astrobotic TechnologyPittsburgh lunar lander company whose Peregrine Mission One (January 2024) carried NASA hydrogen- and volatile-measuring instruments but… | United States | Moon | Lander / transport | Targeted | Active (subsidiary) |
| AstroForgeUS company that states its goal is to extract platinum group metals from near-Earth asteroids. It has flown a low-Earth-orbit refinery… | United States | Near-Earth asteroid | Prospecting, Processing / ISRU | Claimed | Active |
| Astroport Space TechnologiesSan Antonio, Texas company (founded in 2020, by its own account) developing ways to turn lunar regolith into construction material for… | United States | Moon | Processing / ISRU, Extraction | Claimed | Active |
| Blue OriginKent, Washington launch and lunar-lander company. Its resource work consists of Blue Alchemist, a molten-regolith-electrolysis process… | United States | Moon | Processing / ISRU, Lander / transport | Claimed | Active |
| CisluneLos Angeles-area start-up (Rosemead, California, in NASA award records) that develops excavation, site-preparation and regolith-processing… | United States | Moon | Extraction, Processing / ISRU | Targeted | Active |
| Colorado School of MinesU.S. research university included for the Ice Diggers lunar-excavation research team with Lunar Outpost. Its February 2024 report describes… | United States | Moon | Extraction | Targeted | Unknown |
| CU Aerospace L.L.C.U.S. company included for NASA STTR Phase I project 80NSSC24PB225 with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The proposal studies… | United States | Mars | Processing / ISRU | Targeted | Unknown |
| Deep Space IndustriesUS company founded in 2012 to pursue asteroid mining that later concentrated on the Comet water-based electrothermal thruster and the… | United States | Near-Earth asteroid | Prospecting | No level assigned | Absorbed |
| Dioxide Materials, Inc.U.S. company included for NASA SBIR Phase I project 80NSSC25C0188, developing an electrochemical pump to capture and pressurize Martian… | United States | Mars | Processing / ISRU | Targeted | Unknown |
| Ethos Space Corp.U.S. company developing lunar-regolith melting and processing technology. A 2025 NASA Phase I SBIR award supports proposed thermal-storage… | United States | Moon | Processing / ISRU | Claimed | Unknown |
| Firefly AerospaceTexas launch and spacecraft company (Nasdaq: FLY since August 2025) whose Blue Ghost Mission 1 landed in Mare Crisium on 2 March 2025 and… | United States | Moon | Lander / transport | Targeted | Active |
| Honeybee RoboticsSpace robotics and mechanisms company (Altadena, California and Longmont, Colorado) that builds sampling and drilling hardware, including… | United States | Moon | Instrument / drill | Sampled | Active (subsidiary) |
| ICON Technology, Inc.Austin, Texas construction-technology company developing the Olympus lunar construction system under a NASA SBIR Phase III contract; NASA… | United States | Moon, Mars | Processing / ISRU | Claimed | Active |
| InterluneSeattle company that states it will harvest helium-3 (and later other resources) from lunar regolith and return the helium-3 to Earth. As… | United States | Moon | Prospecting, Extraction, Processing / ISRU | Targeted | Active |
| Intuitive MachinesHouston lunar lander company (Nasdaq: LUNR) whose IM-2 lander Athena carried NASA's PRIME-1 ice-drill and mass-spectrometer suite, Lunar… | United States | Moon | Lander / transport | Targeted | Active |
| ispace technologies U.S., inc.Colorado-based U.S. subsidiary of ispace, inc. that was developing the APEX 1.0 lander as a Draper subcontractor for NASA CLPS task order… | United States | Moon | Lander / transport | No level assigned | Active (subsidiary) |
| Karman+Asteroid-mining startup headquartered in Denver, Colorado (relocated from the Netherlands in 2022) that states it plans to excavate… | United States | Near-Earth asteroid | Prospecting, Extraction | Claimed | Active |
| Lunar OutpostGolden, Colorado rover developer that was awarded a 2020 NASA contract to collect and sell lunar regolith for $1; its MAPP rover reached… | United States | Moon | Rover / mobility, Prospecting | Targeted | Active |
| Lunar Resources, Inc.Houston, Texas industrial technology company (SBIR awards since 2019) developing molten regolith electrolysis reactors to extract oxygen… | United States | Moon, Mars | Processing / ISRU | Claimed | Active |
| Lunar Surface Innovation ConsortiumConsortium funded by NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate and run by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory as part… | United States | Moon | None stated | No level assigned | Active |
| Magna Petra Corp.U.S. company that states it intends to prospect for, extract and return lunar helium-3; its first concrete step is a planned rover-borne… | United States | Moon | Prospecting, Extraction | Targeted | Active |
| Masten Space Systems, Inc.Mojave, California rocket-lander company (founded 2004) that held a NASA CLPS task order to land resource-prospecting instruments at the… | United States | Moon | Lander / transport | Targeted | Dissolved |
| Moon Express, Inc.U.S. company founded in 2010 to land robotic spacecraft on the Moon and pursue lunar resources. In its August 2016 announcement, Moon… | United States | Moon | Lander / transport, Prospecting | Claimed | Dormant |
| National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationUS civil space agency. Its space-resources work includes the MOXIE oxygen-production demonstration on Mars (2021-2023), lunar… | United States | Moon, Mars, Near-Earth asteroid | Prospecting, Processing / ISRU, Instrument / drill, Rover / mobility | No level assigned | Active |
| Outward TechnologiesBroomfield, Colorado company (legal name Blueshift, LLC, doing business as Outward Technologies) that develops lunar regolith-processing… | United States | Moon | Processing / ISRU | Claimed | Active |
| OxEon EnergyU.S. developer and manufacturer of solid-oxide systems, included for its contribution to NASA's MOXIE Mars oxygen experiment. NASA names… | United States | Mars | Processing / ISRU | Processing demo | Unknown |
| Paragon Space Development CorporationNASA selected Paragon for NextSTEP-2 Track 2 component development and testing in simulated space environments in 2018. Paragon describes… | United States | Moon, Mars | Processing / ISRU | Claimed | Active |
| Planetary ResourcesUS asteroid-prospecting company founded in 2009 that flew two Earth-orbit technology demonstrators, Arkyd-3R (2015) and Arkyd-6 (2018, with… | United States | Near-Earth asteroid | Prospecting | Claimed | Absorbed |
| Redwire CorporationU.S. space-technology company developing the Mason tool suite to grade, compact and microwave-sinter lunar or Martian regolith into… | United States | Moon, Mars | Processing / ISRU | Targeted | Active |
| Sierra SpaceU.S. space company that built the carbothermal oxygen production reactor used in NASA's Carbothermal Reduction Demonstration (CaRD) ground… | United States | Moon | Processing / ISRU | Claimed | Active |
| Space Lab Technologies, LLCU.S. company listed in Boulder, Colorado in agency award records, developing EcoMine bioregenerative mineral-mining concepts for lunar… | United States | Moon | Extraction, Processing / ISRU | Targeted | Active |
| SpaceXUS launch and spacecraft company whose June 2026 EU securities prospectus lists asteroid mining among planned future activities; it has… | United States | Near-Earth asteroid, Main-belt asteroid | None stated | Claimed | Active |
| Starpath RoboticsHawthorne, California startup that states it will mine water ice at the lunar South Pole with rovers and process it into propellant. NASA… | United States | Moon, Mars | Prospecting, Extraction, Processing / ISRU, Rover / mobility | Claimed | Active |
| Torres Orbital Mining Inc.U.S. company that says it develops sealed robotic systems to capture, contain and transfer abrasive material without releasing dust, and… | United States | Moon | Instrument / drill | Targeted | Active |
| TransAstraLos Angeles-area company (headquarters stated as Pacoima, California) developing asteroid-capture bags, solar-thermal propulsion, and… | United States | Near-Earth asteroid | Prospecting, Extraction, Processing / ISRU | Claimed | Active |
| Venturi AstrolabHawthorne, California lunar rover company. Its FLIP rover is to carry Interlune's helium-3 camera on Astrobotic's Griffin-1 lander, and it… | United States | Moon | Rover / mobility | No level assigned | Active |