China, India vying to become new heavyweights in space exploration

Asian giants, China and India are currently locked in a serious competition to become the new heavyweights in space exploration, reports say.

Before now, the U.S. and Russia were longtime power players in space exploration, but two nations in Asia have made big strides to improve their programs.

India recently sent 31 satellites from 15 different countries into orbit. And in early 2017, it sent 104 satellites into orbit at once — the most ever for a single rocket. It surpassed the previous record of 37 set by Russia in 2014.

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China is set to send an unmanned probe to the moon to bring back the first soil samples in more than 40 years. By 2018, it’s expected to be the first country to soft-land a probe on the far side of the moon.

India and China are also two of six space agencies in the “heavy-lift” rocket club. China joined at the end of 2016, and in June, India successfully launched a satellite into orbit that’s several tons and 13 stories tall.

 

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