“The progress they’ve made has been stunning – stunningly fast.”īut Beijing has rejected some US interpretations of the motives behind China’s space push. “It’s entirely possible they could catch up and surpass us,” Space Force Lt Gen Nina Armagno said on a visit to Australia. US military brass have also sounded alarm over Chinese militarization of space and attendant security concerns. Future missions are designed toward establishing more activity on the moon. Nasa, meanwhile, recently completed the 26-day Artemis I mission to take pictures of the lunar surface. Students listen to an introduction to the Chang’e 5 moon sample-return spacecraft, at the InnoTech Expo in Hong Kong, China, last month. China has also announced the goal of landing taikonauts on the moon by the end of this decade. In December, the Chinese government offered its vision for a crewed lunar landing, space transportation, infrastructure and space governance. A third phase of the program, to establish an autonomous lunar research station near the Moon’s south pole, is scheduled for 2025. Last year, China’s space program put up an Earth-orbiting space station and has mounted several lunar orbiting and sample-retrieving missions. “If you doubt that, look at what they did with the Spratly Islands,” he said. Nelson cited Chinese aggression over islands in the South China Sea, where Beijing has established military bases, as evidence of its territorial ambition. And it is not beyond the realm of possibility that they say, ‘Keep out, we’re here, this is our territory.’” “And it is true that we better watch out that they don’t get to a place on the moon under the guise of scientific research. “It is a fact: we’re in a space race,” Nelson told Politico. The contest between the US and China, he added, was intensifying and the next two years could determine which country achieves an advantage. The assessment came from the Nasa administrator, Bill Nelson, a former astronaut and Florida senator, who went on to warn that China could eventually claim to “own” the moon’s resource-rich areas.
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