The new space race

Archive image. Picture from the launch last Friday. AP  

The new space race 

Russian lunar lander in "abnormal situation" before landing 

Russia's prestige project to send a lunar lander to the moon to search for frozen water appears to have run afoul of patrols.  

The Russian space agency Roscosmos states that the craft was supposed to enter orbit on Saturday before its planned landing on Monday, but that an "abnormal situation" instead arose, writes Sky News.  

Specialists are "analyzing" the situation, writes Roscosmos, without giving any further details. 

Luna-25, as the lunar project is called, is an unmanned craft intended to land on the moon's south pole. Russia is just one of several nations that have projects on the moon in what is described as a modern space race.  

A picture from the Russian rocket launch to the moon. AP  

Analysis: Much at stake in the new space race  

On Friday, Russia launched a lunar lander that will search for frozen water on the moon's south pole, AP reports. The initiative is seen as a sign of a rekindled space race between the world's major powers. The BBC and Fast Company circle six stakeholders: the United States, Europe, Israel, China, India and Russia. Add to that that there are also private actors. 

"In the past, the space race was about who could reach the stars and return home first. Now the goal has shifted to surviving and perhaps even thriving in the space environment," writes Svetla Ben-Itzhak in Fast Company. 

The BBC's Chris Baranuik sees Russia's rocket launch as a new race, the one for frozen water on the moon - a key building block for those actors who might want to build a base on the moon:  

“The small steps taken by individual landings and manned missions may ultimately become giant steps in conquering the solar system in the coming decades and centuries. Who gets there first can really matter.”