While the United States puts on the brakes, and hands over the responsibility for manned spaceflight to private companies, India is accelerating its pace.
A budgetary increase (by 35%) is advancing ISRO’s (Indian Space Research Organisation) plan to send two Indian astronauts into orbit for that country’s first manned space mission. India is also planning to [...]

Now that the United States has abandoned manned space flight, and will scrap its Constellation program, the new race for the moon has two players: China and India.
China—with a bigger budget and a few manned flights under its belt—has to be considered the favorite. That said, India has good engineers and seems determined to plow [...]

India plans manned space missions. They are still some years away. (Their actual spacecraft is still under development.)
But they are busy naming their future space explorers: both selecting them, and deciding what they will be called.
First, selection. The initial group of Indian astronauts will be four fighter pilots. They are looking at a pool of [...]

With Ares/Orion and NASA’s Constellation program apparently on the ropes, that raises a question. Who will be the next person to approach the moon? And when?
There are a number of possibilities. For example, China is methodically expanding it’s manned space flight capabilities. And they’ve announced plans to get people to the moon. But they’ve had [...]

After more than 300 days, India’s Chandrayaan-1 moon probe just stopped working. Some sort of technical failure caused the probe to lose contact with its earth-bound controllers. Repeated attempts to restore contact with the vehicle failed—and the Indian space agency declared the mission to be over.
That said, India first lunar probe performed admirably, and demonstrated [...]

Last year, India landed (or crashed) something called the Moon Impactor Probe (carried by its Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft) into the moon. The main spacecraft continues its lunar orbiting mission.
Next time, they’re preparing to land.

With Russian help
India’s getting help from some real experts—the Russian space agency. The RSA is designing a small lunar rover, which will [...]

In the old days, only the United States and the Soviet Union could get to the moon. Both sent probes there—starting with the Soviet spacecraft Luna 2, which crashed into the lunar surface in 1959. Of course, the ultimate accomplishment was the Apollo program and its 6 successful manned lunar landings.
New players
The United States is [...]

India sent an impressive probe to the moon last year. And putting people into orbit may be coming.
For some years, India has been talking about running its own manned space program. Now, with a big funding increase, they are looking increasingly serious about it. In fact, they hope to start manned space flight by 2015.
Indian [...]

NASA instruments riding aboard an Indian lunar probe are giving us a new view of the moon: inside craters.
Cold, dark craters—north and south
The first pictures show craters at the lunar poles—both north and south. Scientists hope to find water ice inside. But the instruments are still being calibrated and prepared for a more thorough investigation. [...]

A few days, India joined a very exclusive club—the club of nations that have landed vehicles on the moon. In the past, only superpowers like the United States, and the (former) Soviet Union could do such things.
But here in the 21st century, the moon is more reachable. In 2007, Japan sent a vehicle into lunar [...]