NASA's Acting Chief “Angry” About Talk That China Will Beat US Back To The Moon

NASA's interim administrator, Sean Duffy, said Thursday he has heard the recent talk about how some people are starting to believe that China will land humans on the Moon before NASA can return there with the Artemis Program.

"Unless something changes, it is highly unlikely the United States will beat China's projected timeline to the Moon's surface," said Bridenstine, who led the creation of the Artemis Program in 2019. China has said multiple times that it intends to land taikonuats on the Moon before the year 2030.

NASA is on track to conduct a lunar flyby mission in early 2026 (the agency is currently working toward a February launch date for Artemis II), and the administration will undoubtedly seek to promote this as evidence of success.

It's not, though.

The key elements of this mission, including the Orion spacecraft (begun in 2005) and Space Launch System rocket (begun in 2011), have been in development for decades and cost more than $50 billion. At one time, Artemis II was slated to fly in 2021 . Nothing should be taken away from the bravery of the astronauts flying the mission, but it is not even as ambitious as Apollo 8 in 1968, which flew into lunar orbit rather than going out to the Moon and directly back.

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