NASA, together with SpaceX and Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, have a major competitor in a quest to become the first humans to land on the moon since 1972. And they’re the powerhouse on the other side of the world.
China announced on May 29 that it plans to land astronauts on the moon before 2030, according to Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the China Manned Space Agency.
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“The overall goals are to realize China’s first manned landing on the moon before 2030, carry out scientific exploration and related technology demonstrations on the lunar surface, develop a commuting system and short-term stay system for crews, and develop human-robot integrated testing and other key technologies,” Lin said at a news conference on Monday.
Lin added that China wants its astronauts to collect samples on the moon for research to “help deepen mankind’s knowledge about the origin and evolution of the moon and the solar system.”
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson previously described this as a “space race” between the two countries, akin to the battle between the US and the Soviet Union in the mid-20th century.
For the modern day space race, the US is hoping to undercut China with the goal of sending astronauts by 2025, though this has already been delayed a year from early projections by both the Trump and Biden Administration.
Musk’s SpaceX and Bezos’ Blue Origin are both competing as well for their companies to achieve the feat of bringing humans back to space.
However, the delays were partially due to this US-internal battle, as the legal battle with Blue Origin delayed the plans by seven months, according to Nelson.
