This book describes the dramatic advances currently being made in lunar exploration. In the past two years, spacecraft have been launched to the Moon by China, Japan, India and the United States. South Korea has announced lunar plans, and China's advanced human spaceflight program is being challenged by a planned Indian human space capsule -- in other words, a new space race has broken out in Asia. Regional rivalries are spilling out into space, rather like a repeat of the Cold War space race -- but this time China could send astronauts to the Moon before the next manned US mission lands. Sending astronauts to the Moon in 1969 was the climax of a frantic, exciting period of spaceflight which began in 1957, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world's first artificial satellite. In space, as on Earth, a struggle for power and survival was unfolding. Desperate to match Soviet achievements in space, America developed the Apollo program, culminating in the mission of Apollo 11 in July 1969, when the flag of the United States was planted in the grey lunar soil. Before the turn of the century, it was expected that astronauts would return to the Moon, build bases there, and head onward to Mars, but politics, economics, technology and other factors combined to keep humans away from the Moon after the Apollo 17 landing in 1972. But now the world is returning to the Moon. Robot missions are exploring its surface, and preparing for humans to follow. The stage is set for a new chapter in space exploration. This book reviews the earlier space race and the reasons for its decline, and covers the plans and ambitions of the world's major space race players for the near future. Of particular interest are the plans of the new players, China, Japan, India and South Korea, to send manned missions to the Moon. The United States and the European Space Agency have similar plans, and several private enterprises have lunar exploration ambitions. Morris Jones covers these stories in fascinating detail, accompanying them with numerous illustrations.