The failure of Russia s Luna-25 spacecraft to land near the south pole of the moon is a setback for its collaboration with China to establish a joint base, part of a bid to challenge the US and its space allies. Wu Yanhua, the chief designer of Chinas major deep space exploration project, led a delegation to the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia to attend the failed launch in September 2022 and discuss deepening cooperation between the two countries space programmes. Meanwhile, India s Chandrayaan-3 launched last month is scheduled to attempt a landing at the lunar south pole as early as Wednesday.