China and India scored moon landings, while Russia, Japan and Israel ended up in the lunar trash heap.

Now two private companies are hustling to get the U.S. back in the game, more than five decades after the Apollo program ended.

ItB次元官网网址檚 part of a NASA-supported effort to kick-start commercial moon deliveries, as the space agency focuses on getting astronauts back there.

B次元官网网址淭heyB次元官网网址檙e scouts going to the moon ahead of us,B次元官网网址� said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

PittsburghB次元官网网址檚 Astrobotic Technology is up first with a planned liftoff of a lander Monday aboard a brand new rocket, United Launch AllianceB次元官网网址檚 Vulcan. HoustonB次元官网网址檚 Intuitive Machines aims to launch a lander in mid-February, hopping a flight with SpaceX.

Then thereB次元官网网址檚 Japan, which will attempt to land in two weeks. The Japanese Space AgencyB次元官网网址檚 lander with two toy-size rovers had a big head start, sharing a September launch with an X-ray telescope that stayed behind in orbit around Earth.

If successful, Japan will become the fifth country to pull off a lunar landing. Russia and the U.S. did it repeatedly in the 1960s and 70s. China has landed three times in the past decade B次元官网网址� including on the moonB次元官网网址檚 far side B次元官网网址� and is returning to the far side later this year to bring back lunar samples. And just last summer, India did it. Only the U.S. has put astronauts on the moon.

Landing without wrecking is no easy feat. ThereB次元官网网址檚 hardly any atmosphere to slow spacecraft, and parachutes obviously wonB次元官网网址檛 work. That means a lander must descend using thrusters, while navigating past treacherous cliffs and craters.

A Japanese millionaireB次元官网网址檚 company, ispace, saw its lander smash into the moon last April, followed by RussiaB次元官网网址檚 crash landing in August. India triumphed a few days later near the south polar region; it was the countryB次元官网网址檚 second try after crashing in 2019. An Israeli nonprofit also slammed into the moon in 2019.

The United States has not attempted a moon landing since Apollo 17B次元官网网址檚 Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt, the last of 12 moonwalkers, explored the gray, dusty surface in December 1972. Mars beckoned and the moon receded in NASAB次元官网网址檚 rearview mirror, as the space race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union came to a close. The U.S. followed with a handful or two of lunar satellites, but no controlled landers B次元官网网址� until now.

Not only are Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines looking to end AmericaB次元官网网址檚 moon-landing drought, theyB次元官网网址檙e vying for bragging rights as the first private entity to land B次元官网网址� gently B次元官网网址� on the moon.

Despite its later start, Intuitive Machines has a faster, more direct shot and should land within a week of liftoff. It will take Astrobotic two weeks just to get to the moon and another month in lunar orbit, before a landing is attempted on Feb. 23.

If there are rocket delays, which already have stalled both missions, either company could wind up there first.

B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 going to be a wild, wild ride,B次元官网网址� promised AstroboticB次元官网网址檚 chief executive John Thornton.

His counterpart at Intuitive Machines, Steve Altemus, said the space race is B次元官网网址渕ore about the geopolitics, where China is going, where the rest of the worldB次元官网网址檚 going.B次元官网网址� That said, B次元官网网址淲e sure would like to be first.B次元官网网址�

The two companies have been nose to nose since receiving nearly $80 million each in 2019 under a NASA program to develop lunar delivery services. Fourteen companies are now under contract by NASA.

AstroboticB次元官网网址檚 four-legged, 6-foot-tall (1.9-meter-tall) lander, named Peregrine after the fastest bird, a falcon, will carry 20 research packages to the moon for seven countries, including five for NASA and a shoebox-sized rover for Carnegie Mellon University. Peregrine will aim for the mid-latitudesB次元官网网址� Sinus Viscositatis, or Bay of Stickiness, named after the long-ago silica magma that formed the nearby Gruithuisen Domes.

Intuitive MachinesB次元官网网址� six-legged, 14-foot-tall (4-meter-tall) lander, Nova-C, will target the moonB次元官网网址檚 south polar region, also carrying five experiments for NASA that will last about two weeks. The company is targeting 80 degrees south latitude for touchdown. That would be well within Antarctica on Earth, Altemus noted, and 10 degrees closer to the pole than India landed last summer.

Scientists believe the south poleB次元官网网址檚 permanently shadowed craters hold billions of pounds (kilograms) of frozen water that could be used for drinking and making rocket fuel. ThatB次元官网网址檚 why the first moonwalkers in NASAB次元官网网址檚 Artemis program B次元官网网址� named after ApolloB次元官网网址檚 twin sister in Greek mythology B次元官网网址� will land there. NASA still has 2025 on the books for that launch, but the General Accountability Office suspects it will be closer to 2027.

Astrobotic will head to the south pole on its second flight, carrying NASAB次元官网网址檚 water-seeking Viper rover. And Intuitive Machines will return there on its second mission, delivering an ice drill for NASA.

Landing near the moonB次元官网网址檚 south pole is particularly dicey.

B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 so rocky and craggy and full of craters at the south pole and mountainous, that itB次元官网网址檚 very difficult to find a lighted region to touch down safely,B次元官网网址� Altemus said. B次元官网网址淪o youB次元官网网址檝e got to be able to finesse that and just set it down right in the right spot.B次元官网网址�

While Houston has long been associated with space, Pittsburgh is a newcomer. To commemorate the Steel City, AstroboticB次元官网网址檚 lander will carry a Kennywood amusement park token, the winner of a public vote that beat out the SteelersB次元官网网址� Terrible Towel waved at football games, dirt from Moon TownshipB次元官网网址檚 Moon Park, and a Heinz pickle pin.

The lander is also carrying the ashes or DNA from 70 people, including B次元官网网址淪tar TrekB次元官网网址� creator Gene Roddenberry and science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke. Another 265 people will be represented on the rocketB次元官网网址檚 upper stage, which will circle the sun once separated from the lander. They include three original B次元官网网址淪tar TrekB次元官网网址� cast members, as well as strands of hair from three U.S. presidents: George Washington, Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical InstituteB次元官网网址檚 Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Marcia Dunn, The Associated Press