Washington:
The head of the US space agency NASA has told lawmakers in Washington that China is using civilian programs to hide military targets in space.
“China has made extraordinary progress [in space] especially in the last decade, but they are very, very secretive,” Bill Nelson told the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee while testifying on the U.S. space agency's 2025 budget request.
“We believe that a large part of their so-called civilian space program is a military program. And I think we are in fact in a race.”
Nelson also emphasized that it was “duty incumbent on us” to get to the moon first, as he warned: “My concern is that China would get there first and suddenly say, 'OK, this is our territory, stay out '.”
The NASA chief said the US won't lose its “global lead” in space, “but you have to be realistic that China is really throwing a lot of money at it and they have a lot of room in their budget.” to grow.”
“I think we better not let our guard down,” Nelson added.
The NASA chief said he hoped “China's space program would come to its senses and understand that civilian space is for peaceful uses,” but added: “We have not seen that demonstrated by China yet.”
With the Artemis program, NASA wants to put people on the moon again after more than 50 years. The Artemis 3 moon landing mission was recently postponed until September 2026.
Artemis' long-term goal is to establish a permanent lunar base as a base for missions to Mars.
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