Moon objective successful. A Japanese space module accomplished a technological feat by landing with great precision on the Earth’s natural satellite during the night from Friday to Saturday. A great success, even if the Japanese space agency (Jaxa) said it encountered a problem with its solar panels. Thanks to the success of its lander, Japan has expanded the circle of countries that have successfully landed on the Moon. What are the other four? A quick overview.
The United States, the only ones to set foot there
The United States is the only one to have already sent astronauts to set foot on the lunar surface, from 1969 to 1972 during the Apollo program. After having turned away from the Moon for a long time, including for budgetary reasons, NASA, the American space agency, launched the Artemis program in 2017, which aims to bring astronauts back to its soil, with the eventual construction of a permanent lunar base. The first two crewed missions of this program, Artémis 2 and 3, have however just been postponed to September 2025 and September 2026 respectively. NASA is now partnering with private companies to reduce its costs, but this also poses a dependency problem.
The Russians send the first probe in 1966
In 1966, the USSR successfully launched the Luna 9 space probe, which made its smooth arrival on the Moon. In recent years it has been more difficult. Russia failed to land its Luna-25 probe on the Moon last summer, marking the failure of its first mission to the Earth’s natural satellite since 1976.
After shining during the USSR, the Russian space sector is in difficulty due to financing problems, corruption and the isolation of Moscow since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Russian President Vladimir Putin has however, promised to continue financing lunar missions and Russia joined the Chinese lunar base project, a competitor to the American Artemis program.
China on the hidden side in 2019
The Asian giant plans to send taikonauts to the Moon before 2030 and install a sustainable research station there. Although China only sent its first human into space in 2003 – a very long time after the Soviets and the Americans – its space program, with a colossal budget and managed by the army, experienced a steady development, with impressive progress in recent years.
China successfully made its first moon landing in 2013. In 2019, it became the first country to land a device on the far side of the Moon. The following year, its Chang’e 5 probe brought lunar samples back to Earth – a world first in more than 40 years. A new Chinese mission to bring back lunar samples is planned this year.
India sends a rocket in 2023
Although having much more modest means than the established space powers, India managed last year to land an unmanned rocket, Chandrayaan-3, near the lunar South Pole. Prime Minister Narendra Modi now wants to send an Indian to the Moon by 2040. In the shorter term, India plans to send a new exploratory probe to the polar regions of the Moon in 2025, in association with Japan.