During the Cold War, competition between the the United States and the former USSR was fierce, as the two countries rallied for the chance to make history by getting to the moon first.
In 1959, the Soviet Union beat the U.S. to become the first nation to reach the surface of the moon with its Luna 2 spacecraft. But, the United States was the first country to put man on the moon in 1969, and to this day is still the only nation to have landed people on the moon.
To date, only five nations, the U.S., Russia, China, Japan and India, have completed a successful soft landing on the moon. But bolstered by evidence of the presence of water and other natural resources, many more nations and private companies are now seeking to get to the moon.
And whoever is able to establish a significant lunar presence first could have big implications on Earth as well as the cosmos.