Both China and the United States are now planning to send astronauts to the Moon before the end of the decade, sparking talk of a new space race.
“It’s true. We’re in a space race,” Nelson said in an interview. But he didn’t seem convinced that China could win the race first.
Both China and the US are now planning to send astronauts to the Moon before the end of the decade, sparking talk of a new space race. (Photo: euronews)
During a workshop held on January 9 to discuss the schedule for NASA's Artemis program, the head of NASA announced that September 2026 is the target date for the Artemis 3 mission - bringing astronauts to the surface of the Moon.
Responding to a question about China's competition in this race, Nelson dismissed concerns that the US could lose the race to return humans to the Moon.
“I don’t think China will land before us,” Nelson said. “I think China has a very aggressive, aggressive plan. They want to land before us, because that might give them some PR advantage. But the reality is, I don’t think they’ll be able to do it. So when we land back on the moon in September 2026, that will be the first landing of the decade.”
For its part, China is aiming to send a crew of astronauts to the moon by 2030. Both the US and China are aiming for the lunar south pole, an area believed to have a lot of water ice. To get a crew there, China’s space agency is planning to test a new human-rated spacecraft in 2027 or 2028.
They have also outlined plans to use two heavy-lift rocket launches to reach the moon – one to place a lunar lander in orbit and one to carry a crew there. According to Reuters, the two-launch plan would overcome China’s longstanding technological hurdle of developing a heavy-lift rocket powerful enough to carry both astronauts and a probe to the moon.
HUYNH DUNG (Source: Space)
Source
Comment (0)