Space resources authorizations explained

Three resource-specific permissions are recorded, all to ispace companies. Japan's Cabinet Office lists two permits to ispace, the 2022 permit for Mission 1 and the 2024 permit for Mission 2, and showed no later permit when rechecked on 5 October 2026. Luxembourg's register lists one authorization, to ispace EUROPE for its rover. Both ispace landers those permissions covered were lost during landing, in 2023 and 2025, so none of them led to resource collection. The 2016 U.S. determination for Moon Express was a payload review, not a resource permit, and that mission never flew. A permission to collect is not evidence that collection happened.

A general law is not a permit for a named company. The 2015 U.S. space resources law lets U.S. citizens own resources they recover but creates no resource-specific authorization process. Executive Order 14335 directs the Commerce Department to propose a mission authorization process for novel activities. A Federal Register notice of 20 August 2026 describes a voluntary pilot: its certificates have no direct legal effect, participants must still meet any applicable FAA and FCC licensing requirements, and expressions of interest were due on 5 October 2026. Neither document says whether resource extraction counts as a novel activity. Internationally, the UN COPUOS working group's principles remain an unadopted, non-binding draft.