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Beijing directs massive subsidies to its commercial space companies, helping them land international customers for space launch services and other products, while simultaneously propelling its overall space program. This document is subject to copyright. Harrison concurs: "The United States has not been keeping pace with the threats against our space systems," and that has left the US vulnerable. And in late May, NASA selected the first contractor for the its so-called Lunar Gateway project to construct a space station orbiting the moon to serve as a way station for astronauts living and working on the surface.

Best known for his best-selling memoir “Rocket Boys,” he said he has long been “a strong proponent” for NASA’s unmanned robotic missions.

You can unsubscribe at any time and we'll never share your details to third parties. “Given the vast economic potential that lies in outer space resources,” she says, “China is already shifting a major part of its resources to invest in research on space-based solar power, asteroid mining and developing capacity for permanent presence in space.”. And unanswered questions abound. Shortly after New Year’s Day, a boxy gold-toned spacecraft made a soft landing on a corner of the solar system never before visited from Earth: the moon’s far side, sometimes known as the “dark side.”, The craft began sending images of previously unseen reddish craters, bouncing them off a satellite orbiting above. “We will invest in that hardware, but we expect them to make investments in that hardware as well,” he added. Your feedback will go directly to Science X editors. Many observers see Trump and Bridenstine’s ambitions as implying a major shift for the agency, toward a gatekeeper role, laying the groundwork and setting rules for private enterprise to follow. Russia, for its part, has said it plans to build a moon colony. He says he is particularly unimpressed with China’s human spaceflight program, which has conducted far fewer space flights than NASA did during the Apollo program … NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine hailed the mission—intended as part of an ambitious plan to return humans to the lunar surface—as “a first for humanity and a great accomplishment.”. Top: NASA astronauts and SpaceX executives stand in front of the company’s Crew Dragon module. She also criticized those who frame it in terms of a new race for primacy.

The effort is expected to cost the space agency about $2.6 billion over 10 years. “They’ve done zero new things beyond going to a different location on the moon.”, He says he is particularly unimpressed with China’s human spaceflight program, which has conducted far fewer space flights than NASA did during the Apollo program in the 1960s. “I don’t think anyone can take this level of commitment seriously unless there are additional means.”. See our, Read a limited number of articles each month, You consent to the use of cookies and tracking by us and third parties to provide you with personalized ads, Unlimited access to washingtonpost.com on any device, Unlimited access to all Washington Post apps, No on-site advertising or third-party ad tracking. Your email address is used only to let the recipient know who sent the email.

The industry extends well beyond those headline names, with a host of companies with big ambitions to help NASA colonize space. … If you beat us to Mars, we’ll be very happy, and you’ll be even more famous.”, To get to Mars, or even back to the moon, Trump will also need NASA on board with his vision for private space development, and that seems less certain than the affection of billionaires for rockets. “Chinese progress has been incredibly slow given the access they had to all of this stuff and a half-century of history to analyze on the way,” said Greg Autry, a professor at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California who specializes in space entrepreneurship and has advised NASA.

Under Bridenstine, NASA has taken some initial steps to harness the abilities of that expanding commercial space sector. Crucially, the United States also now boasts a burgeoning private space industry, driven in part by high-profile billionaires willing to spend their fortunes on sending humanity outward. “We’re not purchasing, owning and operating the hardware.

But as it does, the U.S. faces a challenge that could be more serious than the technical questions that swirled around the program in the 1960s.

"If there's a crisis in space involving China, it's not clear our military knows who to call," said Harrison. Its signature achievements are probes and telescopes deployed to buzz far-off planets and gaze deep into the universe. Its scientific exploration program is light years ahead of the rest of the world.

Yuan Jiajun, former president of the China Academy of Space Technology and chief commander of the Shenzhou Manned Space Program, is now governor of Zheijiang Province. They are talented and good people and many of them label themselves as ‘pro-commercial,’ but they’ve never lived inside the commercial world.

“The White House has clearly committed to economic development,” Autry said. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. Since then China has successfully sent 11 Chinese Nationals to Space …

"They see the competition with China as a key to unlocking the political will and money to fund the projects they want to see.". Some insiders see this new space race as the first real risk to U.S. leadership in a half-century. But it couldn’t say how much the mission would ultimately cost. How does the observable universe have meaning?

NASA plans to spend $7 billion of its $21 billion budget—the largest chunk—on science; it requested $5 billion for human exploration.

Top right: Chinese astronauts in a televised interview after returning to Earth. It was sent by China.


The agency has always been the primary actor in human spaceflight, driven by testing the bounds of possibility; it has not seen its mission as paving the way for other efforts. “We won that race a half-century ago.”. By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Privacy Policy At least four countries other than the United States are working on moon missions.

and Terms of Use. | STR/AFP/Getty Images; Xinhua/CNSA via Getty Images; AFP/Getty Images. “Using outdated Cold War rhetoric about an adversary seizing the lunar strategic high ground only begs the question of why, if that is the vice president’s fear, the Department of Defense with its more than $700 billion budget request doesn’t seem to share that fear and isn’t tasked with preventing it from coming to pass,” she said. China became the third country ever to launch a human into space in 2003 and has been expanding its space program ever since.

Namrata Goswami, a leading researcher on Chinese space operation at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses in India, estimates that China spent $8 billion last year on its space program. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue.

What would be a proportional response? "It's unfortunately hard to envision any major armed conflict on Earth not extending into space," he added. The space agency instead is heavily committed, culturally and financially, to science. Bottom left: China’s lunar rover, Yutu-2, explores the far side of the moon.

Although opaque, its 2017 budget was estimated at $8.4 billion by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Neither your address nor the recipient's address will be used for any other purpose. If humans are to go out there, I think they should identify and utilize the resources available, especially on the moon, to help the economies of the Earth and also create new industries and businesses.”. Some of the Trump administration’s biggest allies aren’t sure that the skepticism on Capitol Hill and resistance of NASA’s entrenched bureaucracy can be overcome. Shortly after his inauguration, he revived the White House National Space Council, defunct for 25 years, and designated Pence to lead it. Your opinions are important to us. If you haven’t heard of it, and didn’t see much coverage of those historic images, there’s a reason. China didn’t launch an astronaut into space until 2003 — more than 40 years after the United States and the Soviet Union did. Meanwhile, US dialogue with Beijing is virtually nil, in contrast with Washington's exchanges with Moscow during the Cold War. But Bridenstine is a political appointee working for a president whose policy priorities seem to shift week to week, and there are deep doubts he can redirect the 17,000-person agency and its army of contractors to such a new way of thinking.

That's far less than the $48 billion the United States spends on its military and civilian space programs, says analyst Phil Smith of consulting firm Bryce Space and Technology.

“The idea is they’re making those investments because they know that there will be customers that are not NASA,” he said. It has since developed its space program at … Its centrally managed, methodical strategy is designed not just to plant a flag on the moon, but to lead the way in industrializing space.
We rely on readers like you to uphold a free press. But an initiative on the scale of space exploration also requires massive buy-in and investment at the public level, and on that front the U.S. is now potentially at a disadvantage compared with China. And Xu Dazhe, who was the chief administrator of the space agency, is now governor of Hunan Province—particularly symbolic, in Goswami’s view, because that was the home province of Mao Zedong. This content is currently not available in your region. The Trump administration wants to get back to the moon—but Beijing's single-minded focus could outpace a NASA with competing priorities.

China now spends more on its civil and military space programs than do Russia and Japan. Laws of war govern conflicts on Earth, but there is no equivalent for space. Nor has China's progress in space exploration eclipsed that of the US. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. And last year, Trump formally recommitted the United States to returning to the moon. It’s not clear where those additional means will be coming from. | STR/AFP/Getty Images; NASA; Hugh Van Es/AP Photo. In the following days, it launched a robotic rover, set up a colony of silkworms and even experimented with growing plants like cotton and potatoes. “We’re going to need additional means,” Bridenstine told agency employees in a town hall in early April after the administration’s announcement of the 2024 moon goal. Get weekly and/or daily updates delivered to your inbox.

), For the first time since becoming the first nation to land astronauts on the moon in 1969, the United States is aiming to return astronauts to the moon in 2024. In this new race, powered partly by private enterprise and highly capable new space vehicles, there’s an increasingly realistic chance for the winners to stake a claim to the moon’s untapped mineral and other resources and commercialize them. In May, the White House asked Congress for an additional $1.6 billion for next year that it described as a “down payment” for the ambitious 2024 goal. Nevertheless, Autry also sees scant evidence the United States is ready or able to mount the kind of full-scale investment of money and energy required to recalibrate the space program to tap into the potential resources.

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