Yusaku Maezawa

The 'dearMoon' mission - which was set to transport nine civilians around the moon on SpaceX 's Starship - has been cancelled after too many delays. Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa who conceived and financed the mission said he made the 'difficult decision' as it is still 'uncertain as to when Starship can launch'. Mr Maezawa reportedly paid SpaceX $80 million (£60 million) for the trip back in 2018, but it's unclear how much he will get refunded.

China landed an uncrewed spacecraft on the far side of the moon on Sunday, overcoming a key hurdle in its landmark mission to retrieve the world's first rock and soil samples from the dark lunar hemisphere. The landing elevates China's space power status in a global rush to the moon, where countries including the United States are hoping to exploit lunar minerals to sustain long-term astronaut missions and moon bases within the next decade. The Chang'e-6 craft, equipped with an array of tools and its own launcher, touched down in a gigantic impact crater called the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the moon's space-facing side at 6.23 am Beijing time (2223 GMT), the China National Space Administration said. The mission 'involves many engineering innovations, high risks and great difficulty', the agency said in a statement on its website. 'The payloads carried by the Chang'e-6 lander will work as planned and carry out scientific exploration missions.'

Following the excitement of the James Webb Telescope and asteroid-smashing DART mission launched in 2021, plus the world's most powerful ever rocket launch in November this year, the focus shifts to Britain in 2023. That's because Cornwall's first ever orbital space launch on UK soil is set to launch as soon as next month. MailOnline looks at all the other major launches scheduled for 2023.