"wwf -
well I don't think that Nasa landed on the moon, but we can't really tell. and if they were on the moon, why does it take so much time till another crew is sent up there??"
I'm pretty sure the media never stated that China landed people on the moon. They've just sent people into orbit so far. And as for the US landing on the moon in 1969, I've heard that with a decent strength publicly available telescope you can actually make out the original lunar landing site complete with the lunar lander. Also, the US actually made numerous manned landings on the moon after the first landing in 1969. The US made a total of 6 successful missions to the moon in which a total of 12 astronauts touched down. So they really did keep going back to the moon for awhile but what point is there in sending people to the moon every couple of years for 35 years? It would just be a drain on NASA's budget, particularly taking funds away from the more significant development of the space shuttle. Besides, public interest in lunar landing dropped significantly after the first successful mission. There is only now renewed interest in going back to the moon in order to train astronauts for a future mission to Mars and to test new space travel/landing/life support technologies also with a mission to Mars in mind. Also, not to offend any Russians, but Russia hasn't been a significant space power for quite awhile. I mean they are one of only a handleful of countries to posses a space program but at the moment the two top powers are NASA and the ESA (European Space Agency). Also, with the ESA's latest plans, they're likely to take over dominance from the US considering NASA's current financial situation. Anybody interested should take a look at the ESA's "Aurora exploration program". It's a bit more organized and ambitious than any of NASA's current plans. Of course anything could happen in the next decade but the ESA is definately in the best position at the moment.
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