APOLLO 11 AT 40: Who Owns the Moon?  Victoria Jaggard National
Geographic News July 17, 2009  On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11
astronauts stepped onto the moon and planted an American
flag—not to claim the moon but simply to commemorate the U.S.
role in the Apollo 11 moon landing.  Forty years after Apollo
11, a Nevada entrepreneur says he owns the moon and that he's
interim president of the first known galactic government.
(Also see "NASA Aims to Open Moon for Business.")     The
trouble is that, legally, nobody can own the moon or anything
else in space, for that matter, said Tanja Masson-Zwaan,
president of the International Institute of Space Law, based in
the Netherlands.  "What Lunar Embassy is doing does not give
people buying pieces of paper the right to ownership of the
moon," she said.  (Related Apollo 11 photo gallery: "Eight Moon-
Landing Hoax Myths—Busted".)  Lunar Loophole?  The controversy
began in 1980, when Hope registered his claim to the moon with
the United Nations. The claim went unanswered,