America is trying to return to the moon after an absence that lasted for decades

2024-01-04 2024-01-04T21:28:26Z

Arabia Weather - Two private sector companies are launching two landers to the surface of the moon, in an attempt to return the United States to landing operations on the moon more than 5 decades after the end of the “Apollo” program. Those two companies are Astrobotic Technology and Intuitive Machines.

This attempt comes within the framework of NASA's efforts to promote commercial spaceflights to the moon, as the US space agency focuses on sending astronauts there. It is noteworthy that the "Apollo" program, which was supported by NASA, aimed to land humans on the moon and succeeded in doing so several times.

Since then, China and India have successfully landed on the moon, while recent attempts by Russia and Japan ended in failure. This announcement comes within the framework of accelerating space efforts to explore the moon and exploit its opportunities in the future.

Apollo program

The Apollo program was a space program supported by NASA, whose main goal was to land humans on the moon. During the last mission under this program, the Apollo 17 mission carried out in 1972, American astronauts Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan were able to collect about 110.4 kilograms of soil and rock samples from the surface of the moon and brought them to Earth for further studies.

The Apollo program arose out of the space competition between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The Soviet Union achieved a major achievement when Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin launched the first human into space in 1961, prompting the United States to strengthen its space efforts through the "Apollo" program.