China, the US, and Russia are all aiming for the moon as they develop new space missions.
Russia was a major contender in the first space race, but now it can't even land a robot on the moon.
Photos show how Russia is falling behind other space powers with its recent moon crash and old technology.
A new space race is on. China, Russia, and the US (with its international allies) are all plotting huge new moonshots.
The US and its allies have a lunar roadmap, while Russia and China are teaming up on their own plan. But both partnerships aim to build permanent, astronaut-staffed bases on the lunar surface and mine the moon's resources to help rocket people to Mars....
..."The consequences of the Luna-25 catastrophe are enormous," Sergei Markov, a pro-Kremlin political analyst, told the AP.
"It raises doubts about Russia's claims of a great power status in the eyes of the global community. Many would decide that Russia can't fulfill its ambitions either in Ukraine or on the moon because it lives not by its modest current capability but rather fantasies about its great past," he said.
