Asteroid prospecting company AstroForge has been awarded the first commercial license to operate and communicate with a spacecraft in deep space ahead of its Odin mission, which is set to launch and rendezvous with a near-Earth asteroid in early 2025.

The license, granted by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on October 18, specifically relates to the creation of a communications network with terrestrial radio stations on Earthto allow commands to be sent to Odin and data transmitted back to Earth.