NASA says U.S. and Chinese space race

The United States is now in a space race with China over the two countries’ lunar programs and fears that the Chinese may be the first to claim some lunar territory. Bill Nelson, head of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), made that claim Tuesday at a Senate hearing.

“We are in a space race with China,” he said, noting that “this very serious space race” concerns flights to the moon.

Nelson explained that the South Pole of the Moon may contain water, hydrogen and oxygen, NASA suggests. “I wouldn’t want us to be second best there,” the chief of staff noted. In that case, Nelson argued, China could claim exclusive rights to those objects on the moon. “I wouldn’t want them to get there first and then claim it as their territory at the South Pole of the Moon,” Nelson said.

In January 2004, China’s State Council approved a national lunar exploration program. The country made another breakthrough in January 2019, when a Chinese spacecraft reached its back side for the first time. The mission was carried out by the Chang’e-4 interplanetary automatic station with the Yutu-2 moon rover. It rode over 1,000 meters across the surface of the natural Earth satellite and obtained a lot of valuable information.

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