Japan joins an elite club by landing on the moon. What are others doing?
abcnews.go.comJapan has landed a spacecraft on the moon, an attempt at the world’s first “pinpoint lunar landing.”
TOKYO — Japan landed a spacecraft on the moon Saturday, an attempt at the world's first “pinpoint lunar landing." The milestone puts Japan in a club previously occupied by only the United States, the Soviet Union, India and China.
A raft of countries and companies are also plotting moon missions. Success means international scientific and diplomatic accolades and potential domestic political gains. Failure means a very expensive, and public, embarrassment.
Here’s a look at high-profile recent and upcoming attempts, and what they might mean.
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NASA plans to send astronauts to fly around the moon next year, and to land there in 2026.
Just this week, however, a U.S. company, Astrobotic Technology, said its lunar lander will soon burn up in Earth’s atmosphere after a failed moonshot.
The lander, named Peregrine, developed a fuel leak that forced Astrobotic to abandon its attempt to make the first U.S. lunar landing in more than 50 years. The company suspects a stuck valve caused a tank to rupture.
NASA is working to commercialize lunar deliveries by private businesses while the U.S. government tries to get astronauts back to the moon.
For now, the United States’ ability to spend large sums and marshal supply chains give it an advantage over China and other moon rivals. Private sector players such as SpaceX and Blue Origin have made crewed space missions a priority.
Another U.S. company, Intuitive Machines, plans to launch its own lunar lander next month.
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Last year, India became the first country to land a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole, where scientists believe that perpetually darkened craters may hold
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