But the next spacecraft to head to the moon may be Chang’e-6 from China, which will try to add to the country’s cache of lunar rocks and soil. The China National Space Administration has announced that the launch is scheduled for sometime during the first half of this year. Chang’e-6 is essentially a repeat of Chang’e-5, which in 2020 returned the first set of moon samples to Earth since the 1970s.
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The 1969 landing partly resulted from Cold War rivalry between the US and the then USSR. Days before Odysseus’ touchdown, Russia, in a new twist on the old tensions, was reportedly developing a nuclear space weapon that would destroy satellites by creating a massive energy wave when detonated, potentially crippling commercial and government satellites that the world depends on to talk on mobiles, pay bills, and surf the internet.
Similar reports of super weapons littered the 1960s, but right now, we celebrate the US return to the moon. The last time they were there gave us so much technological and scientific innovation that it is easy to forget space exploration’s contribution to our lives – trips to the moon gave us fire-resistant materials, swipe cards, memory foam, wireless headsets and cordless drills. And final confirmation that it was not made of green cheese.
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