China announced Dec. 14 that it had done what the United States has not done in more than 40 years: Land a probe on the moon. The Chang’e 3 spacecraft is the third in a series of Chinese robot probes that are expected to set the stage for a possible manned landing after 2020.

China’s push for the moon comes as the U.S. manned space program limps along in its third year without a vehicle to put humans into space, following the retirement of the last Space Shuttle in 2011. Though American astronauts continue to fly aboard the International Space Station, they depend on Russian rockets to get them there and will continue to do so through at least 2015, at a cost of $70 million a seat.