NASA Administrator Bill Nelson is unconcerned that China will beat the United States in returning astronauts to the moon.
Both China and the United States have plans to land astronauts on the moon before the decade is over, reviving talk of a new space race. "It is a fact: We're in a space race," Nelson said in a 2023 interview. "And it is true that we better watch out that they don't get to a place on the moon under the guise of scientific research. And it is not beyond the realm of possibility that they say, 'Keep out, we're here, this is our territory.'"
