I'm pretty sure there is a significant amount of cooperation when it comes to space exploration. Space missions often carry instruments from different countries

I'm pretty sure there is a significant amount of cooperation when it comes to space exploration. Space missions often carry instruments from different countries. For example, the lunar probe that discovered water on the moon, Chandrayaan-1, carried instruments from different countries. Curiosity carried instruments from other countries too, if I'm not mistaken. It's just that you don't read much about this in the newspapers, because newspapers would rather make it look like there's a space race going on.