The global race to the dark side of the Moon

Russian space agency Roscosmos announced yesterday that its Luna-25, the country’s first Moon mission since 1966, crashed during landing—leaving the world looking to India’s Chandrayaan-3 to land on the satellite on Wednesday.

India and Russia were racing to become the first country to land on the lunar south pole, and with Russia out now, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) says its Chandrayaan spacecraft has slowed down and is awaiting sunrise on the Moon to attempt a landing on August 23.

The lunar south pole is special
It has ice. NASA claims the challenging terrain of the lunar south pole has water ice in its craters. 

Any country that reaches there first will be leading in the global race to occupy the Moon and use its resources like water and moon dust to develop rocket fuels, solar panels, human settlements, research stations, etc.

To note
The U.S. has already landed on the Moon before and is speeding up to land Americans on the natural satellite with its Artemis missions. A four-member NASA crew is set to fly by the Moon’s surface in 2024 to test systems for future missions.