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Europe is to launch a spacecraft to the moon as it seeks to become a contender in the new space race that has taken off 50 years after the US lunar mission.

The Paris-based European Space Agency (ESA) is to land a robotic rover on the lunar surface, but says it will eventually send manned missions.

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After Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon, the initial craze for lunar exploration waned.

Enthusiasm has been boosted again by cheaper technology and the increasing involvement of private companies, such as SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, which are planning to send tourists into space within a few years.

The ESA is working with the Canadian and Japanese space agencies to prepare its Heracles moon mission in the mid to late 2020s. It has focused on the scientific side of space exploration since it was founded by 22 European countries, including the UK, in 1975.

The ESA’s rover will “scout the terrain in preparation for the future arrival of astronauts, and deliver lunar samples to Earth”, the agency said.

The rover will use the future Lunar Gateway, a space station to be placed in orbit around the moon by Nasa and the ESA in the 2020s, as a staging post.

Both China and the U.S. are planning new manned missions to the moon — and eventually Mars, while India will launch its Chandrayaan-2 Moon mission today after aborting it on July 15.