It is now 35 years since the last of the moon travelers returned home. During this period, the launching of satellites and humans going out to live on the International space for months at a time has become an almost routine affair.

In recent years, there has been resurgence of interest in the earth’s natural satellite i.e. moon. For example- Japan’s first lunar probe Selene, China’s Change and India’s Chandrayaan-I launched in October 2008. All these three countries have planed for further unmanned exploration of the moon.

The U.S National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) want to retire the space Shuttles by 2010 and concentrating on the development of a new space transportation system. NASA has also aims to have human back on the moon by 2020 and to begin the manned exploration of the Mars by 2037.

Russia is too human flights to the moon and the Mars, and the present indications are that China, Japan and India are likely to dispatch, in course of time, their own astronauts to the moon. Thus, a new age of space exploration will surely see competition among space faring nations.