A company will soon be testing its prototype moon lander at a historic launch complex in Brevard County, a move that is expected to bring dozens of jobs to the Space Coast.

Bob Richards, CEO of Moon Express, said it's an honor to call Cape Canaveral home and to work toward becoming the first private group to reach the lunar surface.

"To think we are back here now as a private company trying to help the U.S. get back to the moon is a dream come true," Richards said.

Richards is giddy about space. Actually, that's probably an understatement.

Richards and his family drove from Toronto, Canada, to Cocoa Beach to vacation when he was a child. Seeing Apollo-era rocket launches fueled his desire to start Moon Express, the Silicon Valley-based upstart company with star-like dreams.

The company is building a small lunar lander spacecraft with the goal of sending it to the moon within just two years. The ultimate goal is future lunar living.

It must be tested first, though.

That's where Complex 36 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station comes in. The group just signed a five-year lease agreement with Space Florida, the state agency overseeing the deal.

"(It) allows us the honor of refurbishing Launch Complex 36 as our home base for propulsion development, spacecraft development and test operations," Richards said. "This is the first place where the United States first went to the moon."

Complex 36 was the launch pad for some of the earliest launches going back to the 1960s, sending lunar probes into space on Atlas rockets.

The project will bring between 25 and 50 jobs to the area and about a $500,000 investment split with the county and Space Florida.

The end goal is to have hundreds of employees and millions of dollars in investment along the Space Coast.

Jobs include machinists to rocket scientists.

Currently, Moon Express is doing testing at the end of the Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility. All of the work is the precursor to possibly winning the Google Lunar XPRIZE contest — $20 million going toward the first commercial group to land their robot on the moon, move it on the surface and then beam back high-definition broadcasts of the feat.

"If you are going to the moon, there's no better place than the Space Coast," Richards said.

Moon Express plans more testing on its lunar lander in the coming weeks at the Kennedy Space Center until operations move to the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.