“It’s a fact: We’re in a space race,” the former Florida senator and astronaut says in the interview. “And we’d better be careful they don’t set foot on the moon under the guise of scientific research. Because it is not impossible for them to say: “Stay out, this is our territory.” Nelson draws comparisons with the South China Sea, where the Chinese military has established bases on disputed islands.
Rapid progress
China’s space program is making rapid progress. In November, China opened its own space station. China has also landed on the moon several times and sent a robotic spacecraft with a camera to Mars. Beijing wants to take taikonauts to the moon by the end of this decade.
The United States wants to return humans to the moon as early as the end of 2025, for the first time since 1972. But the slightest delay in developing new technologies could mean China is first, a frightening prospect for the United States. Last November, NASA managed to send the new American unmanned Orion spacecraft around the moon. Which will later have to carry the manned mission.
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Unmanned mission
NASA Chief Nelson says he is optimistic that a manned mission could fly around the moon in 2024 and that Americans will set foot on the lunar surface again the following year. Yet he also depends, among others, on the private space company SpaceX, which manufactures the landing capsule. “China has made tremendous strides and progress over the past decade,” Nelson says. “Even their date for the moon landing is brought forward.”