This summer, two countries have had their eyes on the skies, literally.

In mid-July, India launched an uncrewed spacecraft to the moon.

We have a majestic lift off of L.D.F.T. M4 rocket carrying India's prestigious Chandrayaan

3 spacecraft.

And in early August, in a different corner of the world, Russia did the same thing.

Both missions were set to touch down on a part of the moon that no one had ever been able to reach before,

and the world waited to see who would get there first.

Welcome to the journal, our show about money, business, and power.

I'm Jessica Mendoza. It's Friday, August 25th.

Coming up on the show, the new race to the moon.

Have you ever wanted to go to space?

I have not ever wanted to.

You cover NASA and you've never wanted to?

I mean, let me try that again.

Our colleague, Micah Maidenberg, reports on the business of space.

Somebody who's covering this day in and day out, I tend to let the protagonist

behind these devices and these programs chase after those dreams.

But it's certainly more possible today to imagine, you know, visiting space,

potentially going beyond than it did in decades past.

During the Cold War, the moon captured the imaginations of both the former Soviet Union and the United States.

At first, the Soviet Union seemed to be pulling ahead.

In 1959, the Luna 2 became the first human-made object to touch moon dust.

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