Five space agencies, five countries, one shared frontier. This article covers the major programmes beyond India’s own, ISRO, already covered elsewhere on this site.
Timeline
- NASA (United States) was founded in 1958. It landed the first humans on the Moon with Apollo 11, in 1969.
- ESA, the European Space Agency, was founded in 1975, by 10 states. It now has 23 member states, headquartered in Paris.
- Roscosmos (Russia) was established in 1992. It inherited the Soviet space programme, which launched Sputnik-1 in 1957 and flew Yuri Gagarin in 1961.
- CNSA, the China National Space Administration, was established in 1993. It runs China’s Tiangong space station and Chang’e lunar programme.
- JAXA (Japan) was formed in 2003, merging three earlier Japanese space and aviation research bodies.
Must Know
The Major Agencies
NASA, ESA, and the ISS
- Scope This article covers the major agencies and missions of the non-India space landscape. For India’s own programme, see SciTech0007 — India’s Space Programme.
- NASA Leads the current Artemis programme, aiming to return astronauts to the Moon.
- ESA An intergovernmental organisation, not a single-country agency. Its Rosetta mission was the first to land a probe, Philae, on a comet, in 2014.
- ISS Partners Roscosmos and NASA are the two founding partners of the International Space Station (ISS), alongside ESA, JAXA, and Canada’s CSA.
Good to Know
Notable Missions
Mars, Asteroids, and RTGs
- CNSA Its Tianwen-1 mission made China only the second country to land and operate a rover on Mars, in 2021. Its core Tiangong module, Tianhe, also launched that year.
- JAXA Its Hayabusa2 mission returned samples from the asteroid Ryugu to Earth in 2020. Japan also contributes the Kibo laboratory module to the ISS.
- ESA Its Ariane rocket family gives Europe independent access to space, and has carried missions including Rosetta and Gaia.
- Soviet Firsts The Soviet Union, Roscosmos’s predecessor, achieved two firsts in the early Space Age. It launched the first satellite, Sputnik-1, in 1957, and flew the first human in orbit, Yuri Gagarin, in 1961.
- RTGs Deep-space missions beyond Mars often can’t rely on solar panels, since sunlight is too weak that far out. Many instead carry a Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG), which converts heat from the decay of Plutonium-238 directly into electricity. It is not a fission reactor — there is no chain reaction, just passive radioactive decay. NASA’s Voyager probes and Cassini both used RTGs.
Test Yourself
Great to Know
Recent Turns
Delays, Realignments, and Rivalry
- Artemis NASA’s Artemis II flew a crewed lunar flyby in April 2026. The next crewed Moon landing, however, has been pushed to Artemis IV, targeted for 2028, after Artemis III was restructured into an Earth-orbit test flight.
- ExoMars ESA’s ExoMars rover, Rosalind Franklin, was originally a joint mission with Russia. ESA ended that partnership in 2022, and NASA now supplies the launch vehicle and other hardware. The rover now targets a 2028 launch.
- Wolf Amendment China was never a partner in the ISS, and the 2011 Wolf Amendment made direct NASA-China cooperation legally difficult. This is the immediate context behind China building Tiangong as an independent station.
Current Affairs
Chang’e-7 Mission
China’s Lunar South Pole Mission
- Launch China’s Chang’e-7 mission is scheduled to launch on 24 August 2026, on a Long March 5 rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Site.
- Target The mission targets the lunar south pole, landing near Shackleton Crater, at about 88°S latitude, to search for water ice.
- Spacecraft It includes an orbiter, lander, rover, and a rocket-propelled hopping probe, built to reach terrain no rover can.
- Status As of early August 2026, the mission is in final pre-launch preparations. It has not yet launched, and no water-ice detection has been confirmed.
- International Partners It carries scientific instruments from international partners, including Russia, Egypt, Bahrain, Thailand, Italy, and Switzerland.
Previous Year Question
Asked as: “With reference to radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs), consider the following statements.” (UPSC CSP 2024, GS Paper I). View this question.
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