Race to be the Fourth Country to Successfully Land on the Moon

The USA, Russia and China have successfully landed people or robotic missions on the moon and India and Israel have recently tried and failed.

Who are the countries are likely to be the fourth country to successfully land on the moon?

Israel and India will try again.

Japan seems likely to be fourth. Germany is still a competitor and its project is now financially more stable.

Japanese company iSpace will try to land the Hakuto-R lander in 2021. It will be flown on a Falcon 9. it will be a lander technology demonstration. Hakuto-R Mission 1 will include a lunar lander that is now scheduled for launch aboard a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket in October 2021. Hakuto-R Mission 2, a lunar lander and rover, is scheduled for launch in March 2023.

The Berlin-based Zeitfracht Group invested in the first German lunar mission and has acquired the space start-up PTS. The company, formerly known under the name PTScientists, was renamed Planetary Transportation Systems as part of the acquisition. PTS is the only company in Europe with a lunar landing device in an advanced stage of development.

With the takeover of PTS by Zeitfracht Group, both the German site of PTS and the jobs of the approximately 60 employees, including a large proportion of highly qualified engineers and scientists, will be retained. Research and development work of the first European lunar landing mission will also continue without delay.

Zeitfracht Group is an owner-managed family business in the third generation with more than 3,000 employees and headquarters in Berlin and Leipzig.

The estimate is that the German effort might land in 2022-2025.