Space and moon are the next big frontiers and today Asian nations are leading the pack, leaving behind the 20th century space gladiators Russia and America.

China leads the Asian pack with India and Japan not far behind. Chinese astronauts or taikonauts took a stroll in space. Only Russia and America have achieved this feat till now.

China recently launched a mission to moon too. India's own moon dreams could come true in the next few weeks with Chandrayan-1 almost ready now. The Asian space race is catching on.

In 2003, China put its astronaut in orbit. Four years later the Chinese unmanned mission to moon, Chang'e-1 took off.

The same year, the Japanese mission to moon Kaguya was launched. This year the big thing for China was the space walk.

For India, it is Chandrayaan-1 slated for October launch.

China might be ahead in the race now but India's moon craft Chandrayaan-1 is the first multi-continent mission with a two-year lifespan.

It will have the largest suite of scientific experiments ever to be carried to the moon. But when will we have an Indian in space?

"Well, about a year back, government has cleared the big budget activities. We have assembled the team, the team has come out with the first cut report. It's very promising, they have identified the technological challenges -- what areas the new facilities have to be established. When we are working on a problem like this on our own, it takes time and we still hope before 2015 we should be able to achieve this work," said Dr G Madhavan Nair, Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation.

Space programmes are highly competitive. Every country guards the technologies closely. For them, it's a lonely walk out there.

So, is there an ongoing Asian space race? You ask any of the space agencies and they will vehemently deny it. But subliminally, there is no doubt that a new regional race to master space is happening and the two giants China and India are again tugging it out not just on Earth but in the cold space as well.