ANALYSIS – The moon race is heating up! In a few weeks, the Luna 25 mission – Russia's first trip to the moon in almost 50 years – will aim to explore the south polar region, eyed by the U.S. and other nations as a site for future lunar bases.
A successful Luna 25 touchdown would represent a major milestone in Russia's quest to revive its lunar program.
And it could create the potential for conflict as well.
This is likely a precursor to more lunar missions as Russia and China are working on a long-term plan to set up a permanent unmanned base on the moon by 2028. (RELATED: China And Russia's ‘Dramatic' Space Buildup)
The long-delayed Russian spacecraft is expected to be launched aboard the Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle on Aug. 11.
If everything goes to plan, the spacecraft will land near the Boguslavsky crater at the moon's south pole; a region thought to be rich in water ice.
The lander is expected to study surface regolith and exospheric dust and particles for one year.
China wants to land people on the moon by 2030. The country is developing a next-generation rocket to launch an upgraded crew spacecraft while work is also underway on a lunar lander. (RELATED: If China Wins Space Race – US Could Lose The Moon – And A Lot More)
Previously only referred to as the “921 rocket” or “Long March 10,” China's upcoming super-heavy lifter has finally received its official name – the Chang Zheng 10. The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) expects the rocket to make its first test flight in 2027.
The U.S. hopes to have boots on the moon with its Artemis mission by 2025.
If successful, Artemis II is scheduled to blast off in May 2024, with a crew of four astronauts, on a lunar-flyby-return-to-Earth test mission.
Assuming the success of Artemis II, Artemis III is set to land two people on the moon in 2025 and keep them there for a week – making it the first human moon landing since Apollo 17 in 1972 (53 years ago).
The Soviet Union became the first nation to soft-land a spacecraft on the Moon in 1966 with its Luna-9 mission. The USSR achieved six more successful lunar landings over the next 10 years before shutting down the program after the 1976 Luna 24 mission.
America landed men on the moon with Apollo 11 in 1969, the only country to have done so yet.
It seems the moon will be getting crowded soon. Space Force may have to create Space Marines to protect its lunar assets. (RELATED: Space Marines Or Starship Troopers? – Rocket-Launched US Spec Ops To Deploy Worldwide)
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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The REAL question is why has no one been back there in DECADES?
What happened to the missions that could have been going on all this time? We could have had a moon base set up long ago, but something stopped all that!!
But will they?
No manned Moon missions save by the US
If all the secret payoffs to politicians was made available our moonbase would have been well established long ago.
None of it is going to happen because the evil men of the earth are creating much war famine and uncontrolled gain of function disease that will begin murdering vast numbers of people in the coming months! We are in the long prophesied last days and the technologies mentioned will all be destroyed over a seven year
period!
They must feel the need to show their power. Ukraine hasn’t worked out very well so far.