Delays Trigger Concerns About NASA's Plan To Return Astronauts To The Moon Ahead Of China

Decades after the U.S. began and won a space race with the Soviet Union, NASA is shooting for the moon once again – this time with China as a competitor.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has publicly expressed concern about China getting to the south pole first and staking a claim.

No Americans have stepped foot on the moon's surface since 1972, the last year of NASA's Apollo missions, which safely landed Neil Armstrong and 11 more astronauts.

The agency is paying Elon Musk's SpaceX to take NASA's crews from the Orion Spacecraft down to the moon. In 2021, NASA signed a nearly $3 billion contract with SpaceX to use its new Starship mega rocket and lunar lander for the first Artemis astronauts.

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