Has Europe Given Up On the New Moon Race?

Europe hasn’t been to lunar orbit since 2006 and has never attempted a lunar landing.

China has conquered the lunar far side and brought to Earth samples from that unexplored region.

Japan and India both cracked the challenging lunar descent and touchdown, deploying rovers that briefly roamed the lunar surface.

Europe has had a lander in the works — at least on paper — as late as 2019 .

The ExoMars mission intends to deliver Europe ’s first rover to Mars to search for traces of life under the surface of the planet.

The mission may be under further threat as cuts to NASA 's budget, proposed by the administration of President Donald Trump , would end the American agency's participation in the mission.

A few European countries have made independent attempts to visit the moon on their own.

ESA-funded mission to the moon will be a telecommunication relay for spacecraft and robots on the moon’s surface.

The mission is a precursor for a constellation of satellites called Moonlight , which aims to provide an equivalent to GPS for explorers on the lunar surface.

A preliminary design contract for Moonlight was awarded last year to Telespazio , but it is not yet fully funded.