A twenty-first century space appears to be underway as China announced the successful landing of its first lunar rover.

The six-wheel rover, named Jade Rabbit or Yutu, reached the moon’s surface on December 14 after its December 1 launch.  Its first images were transmitted back to Earth, reigniting a competitive spirit among the globe’s 70 countries currently boasting space programs.

“Now as Jade Rabbit has made its touchdown on the moon surface, the whole world again marvels at China’s remarkable space capabilities,” came the statement from China’s state-run Xinhua news agency said.

The rover traveled with the goal of achieving China’s first lunar soft-landing, developing technologies to expand on for future missions, and exploring surface topography and geology.  The rover is also equipped with digging abilities and plans to conduct the first direct measurements of the lunar soil.

The news comes as a timely development following the November landing of India’s first robotic probe on Mars.  The country had already achieved a probe moon landing, with a projection to send another by 2017.

Once the exclusive territory of super powers, many up-and-coming economies have recently begun stepping up their space exploration programs.  Observers still acknowledge the United States as the world’s leader, especially with the groundbreaking work coming from NASA’s Curiosity rover which touched down on Mars in August 2012.

However, NASA has battled recently with substantial budgetary cuts.  The program– at the height of the original space race of the 1960s– was commanding 4% of the federal budget.  Today it totals less than one-half of 1% and still has critics calling for further reductions.  But with Russia outpacing the U.S. in the number of 2013 launches, many have raised concerns.

Buzz Aldrin, the astronaut retired from the United States’ original Apollo program, was among them.  He weighed in on the developments in a recent interview.

“They are ignoring the achievements of what we risked our lives for,” he said, further stating that NASA’s budget “is totally inadequate for an endeavor that brings so much inspiration to the American people and educating the next generation.”

“A number of nations have evolved their capabilities to put humans into space and beyond Earth,” Aldrin continued. “We should help contribute to their exploration.”