NASA's Artemis 2 crewed mission to the moon shows how US space strategy has changed since Apollo – and contrasts with China's closed program

A white cone-shaped capsule on a truck bed under a cloudy sky.

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

When Apollo 13 looped around the moon in April 1970, more than 40 million people around the world watched the United States recover from a potential catastrophe. An oxygen tank explosion turned a planned landing into an urgent exercise in problem-solving, and the three astronauts on board used the moon's gravity to sling themselves safely home. It was a moment of extraordinary human drama, and a revealing geopolitical one.