Which firm will win the new Moon race?

IN recent years launching things into orbit has become the province of private enterprise. Of 178 successful missions in 2022, 90 were by companies (in many cases subcontracted by governments), and of those 61 were by one firm, SpaceX. When it comes to sending things to the Moon, however, governments retain a monopoly of success. Beresheet, a privately paid for Israeli probe, ended up crashing into it in 2019. From the Apollo programme of the 1960s and 1970s to recent endeavours, such as China’s robotic rover, Chang’e 5, all successful lunar landers, orbiters and rovers have been launched at taxpayers’ expense.