NASA is worried about Chinese ambitions for the moon

Since the opening of the Chinese space station and the delays in the Artemis missions, the US space agency fears future tensions on the moon in the event of coexistence. Unless the Chinese arrive before the Americans, and prevent them from setting foot there.

The Chinese on the moon before the return of the Americans? NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has raised concerns about China’s space ambitions, including on the moon, he said in an interview Sunday for Politico.

“It is better to make sure that they do not reach the moon under the guise of scientific research,” he launched, explaining that it is not impossible for the Chinese to then say: “Wait away, we are here, this is our land.”

While the United States aims, with the Artemis II mission, to send a crew of astronauts to the Moon by 2025 – already a year after the goal set during the Trump administration – China has carried out an increasingly aggressive space program in recent years.

Beijing recently opened a new space station and aims to send astronauts to the moon by the end of the decade — if not sooner.

‘huge progress’

“China has, over the past decade, achieved tremendous success and progress,” Bill Nelson told Political Media. For him, in this “space race”, “it is also true that the date of their landing on the moon is getting closer and closer.”

The NASA director’s concern is greater because the moon has “a few places in the lunar south pole that are suitable, at this point, to collect water and so on.” So he fears that it is first come, first served.