A New Race to the Moon

A group of European engineers called PTScientists has announced plans to make the first unmanned, private moon landing sometime in 2018 on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. Here are other initiatives to return to the moon:

NASA

NASA is studying the possibility of accelerating the development of its Space Launch System–a giant rocket being built to transport people to Mars–to take a crew of astronauts around the moon on its first flight as early as 2018.

BLUE ORIGIN

Jeff Bezos wants an Amazon-like delivery service in order to enable “future human settlement”on the surface. His space company, Blue Origin, hopes to deliver gear for habitats and lunar experiments by mid-2020.

ROSCOSMOS

Russia’s space agency said last year it is looking to build a manned moon station based on Cold War–era research. No deadline has been set for the 12-person base.