The Soviet Union (now, Russia) was the first country to send a human in space when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968) was shot into orbit in Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961. American astronaut Alan Shepard (1923-1998) was sent into sub-orbital space on May 5, 1961, aboard Freedom 7—making the United States the second country to send a human into space. American astronaut John Glenn (1921-) was the first U.S. astronaut to successfully orbit the Earth when he completed three orbits aboard Friendship 7 on February 20, 1962.

On October 15, 2003, the People’s Republic of China became the third country to launch a human into space when Chinese taikonaut Yang Liwei (1965-) orbited the Earth for 21 hours in Shenzhou 5.

Now, in the twenty-first century, a representative of the China National Space Administration (CNSA, http://www.cnsa.gov.cn/n615709/cindex.html) announced on November 27, 2005 that its organization hopes to send a manned mission to the Moon, in coordination with the Russians, by 2020.

Beginning in 2007, the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos, http://www.roscosmos.ru/index.asp?Lang=ENG) is upgrading the Soyuz space vehicles so that unmanned spacecraft will be able to fly around the Moon by 2011. Then, one year later, it expects to send an unmanned orbiter about the Moon while a lunar lander is sent onto the surface of the Moon.

The United States is developing Project Constellation, which will replace the Space Transportation System (the Space Shuttle fleet), in order to extend manned space activities from low-Earth orbit to such destinations as the Moon and Mars. NASA’s (http://www.nasa.gov/) Orion spacecraft is tentatively scheduled to go on its first manned mission to the Moon by 2020.

The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA, http://www.jaxa.jp/index_e.html) is developing a manned lunar landing around 2020. If successful, the agency hopes to follow it up with a manned Moon base by 2030.

The country of India, through its Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO, http://www.isro.org/), is developing a two-person capsule to be sent into space in 2014. Later, ISRO has plans to send an unmanned lunar orbiter to the Moon by 2018 and, possibly, a manned lunar mission between 2020-2025.

Besides these countries with ambitious plans for manned space travel to the Moon and beyond, the United Kingdom, through its British National Space Centre (BNSC, http://www.bnsc.gov.uk/home.aspx?nid=3191), is also planning unmanned missions to the Moon. It has just announced an unmanned mission to the Moon called MoonLITE that could be launched as early as 2010.

The European Space Agency (ESA, http://www.esa.int/esaCP/index.html), headquartered in Paris, France, is an organization of 17 member states. Although it has not announced plans to send unmanned or manned missions to the Moon, the ESA is a major participant in scientific space research. As it has done in the past, the ESA continues with its unmanned missions to the planet Mars. In addition, it has announced plans to develop and test technology necessary for manned ESA missions to Mars as early as 2030.

It is difficult to say which space organizations are making better headway for completing manned missions to the Moon and Mars. No doubt, the United States, ESA, and Russia have the biggest advantages due solely to their long-time experiences in outer space. However, China is rapidly developing its space program and could quickly turn into a major competitor.

It will probably be most interesting in the next few years to see whether India or Japan is the fourth country to launch a human into space.

{moscomment}