A new space race is here – let’s hope it can be a peaceful one this time

Growing global tensions give rise to fears of a new cold war, writes Andrew Griffin

A Long March-5 rocket, carrying an orbiter, lander and rover as part of the Tianwen-1 mission to Mars, lifts off from China's Hainan Province (AFP/Getty)

Mars is about to get a lot busier. China and the UAE have sent their first independent missions to the moon, and Nasa is set to launch a new rover to explore the surface, all within the space of a few days.

The clump of launches is not a coincidence or a particular sign of some new Mars fervour: the planets only align for a launch once every 26 months, leaving a small window that any missions must jump through. (If they miss it, they miss dramatically: the European Space Agency had intended to launch its own Mars mission, but it was delayed, and now has to be pushed back by two years).

But it is certainly a sign that all of these countries have something to prove: there have been windows before, and they aren’t usually leapt through by such a globe-spanning set of states. The new space race is definitely here.