China's Moon, Russia's Mars and the UK's origins of the Universe

According to this article we are in a new age of space exploration, but isn't an age 500 years long?

The Russian's are still contemplating manned Mars missions, the expedition to the Red planet being the great adventure 20 years into the future, and it seems, it always will be

The UK's University of Leicester (pronounced Lester not Lie-Chester) has grandiose plans for the Universe

While the Chinese take a more direct route to the Moon