On Monday, the Chaoyang District branch of Beijing's Administration for Industry and Commerce launched an investigation into a company selling real estate on the Moon, Xinhua News Agency quoted Beijing Times as reporting on October 11.

Li Jie, the firm's CEO, said his company was the sole agent in China for US-based firm Lunar Embassy and has been authorized to sell land on the Moon between the 20th and 24th degree latitude north and 30th to 34th degree longitude west.

Earlier, in a report published in English on October 10, Xinhua said Lunar Embassy claimed anyone can purchase an acre on the Moon by paying 298 yuan (US$37). Customers receive a certificate of ownership that it said ensures rights to use the land and minerals either on the ground or up to three kilometers beneath it.

Li said his company has already received more than 400 telephone orders nationwide, but no transactions have yet been made. It registered on September 5 with a declared capital of 10 million yuan (US$1.23 million) and rented offices signed "Lunar Embassy" though its registered name is Beijing Lunar Village Aeronautics Science Co Ltd.

Chaoyang bureau staff said sale of land on the Moon was not listed as the company's business in its registration, and they will have to consult space and aeronautics authorities over regulations and laws before they can judge the legitimacy of the company's practice.

Lunar Embassy describes itself as an extraterrestrial estate agency founded by an American named Dennis Hope in 1980, 11 years after the Apollo II mission first landed people on the Moon.

The 1967 Outer Space Treaty prohibited national appropriation in outer space, and a follow-up treaty finalized in 1979 called the Moon Treaty, which would have barred individuals or companies from owning land there, has not been ratified by any major space faring nation.

The UN treats the Moon and all outer space as being owned by everyone, as international waters are.

Hope nevertheless once told Chicago's WGN-TV Morning News, "I have 2.3 million customers including two presidents and dozens of movie stars," like Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Tom Cruise and Harison Ford.

(China.org.cn by Wind Gu, October 13, 2005)