 "As Nasa loses 4,000 staff after Trump cuts, China surges ahead in Moon race")
For decades, the idea of a space race belonged to history books. The United States had planted its flag on the Moon, the Cold War had ended, and space exploration became routine, bureaucratic, and often political. That sense of finality is now gone. China and the US in past decades had been locked in a space race, a contest to see which nation could put its people on the moon.
US and space missions
A new race is underway, and for the first time since Apollo, the US is not clearly in the lead.
Under US President Donald Trump, Nasa has been pushed into turbulence. Nearly 4,000 employees have exited the agency following administrative upheaval and imposition of about 24 per cent tariffs.
No structure designed
Senior leadership has changed repeatedly, long-term planning has been disrupted, and flagship lunar programs have become entangled in politics rather than engineering.
Former Nasa officials describe the situation bluntly: the US framed the Moon as a race again without building a structure designed to win it.
At the centre of America’s return-to-the-Moon effort is Artemis, a program meant to revive crewed lunar landings. But Artemis is weighed down by compromises. The Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule are expensive repurposings of older technology. They have flown together only once. Key elements, including the lunar lander being built by SpaceX, are still under development.
Meanwhile, mission timelines have slipped repeatedly, and even optimistic projections push a sustainable human presence on the Moon toward the late 2020s.
China: A planned space program
China’s approach looks very different. Its space program is centrally planned, methodical, and shielded from electoral cycles. In 2024, the Chinese spacecraft Chang’e-6 successfully returned samples from the far side of the Moon, a first in human history.
The mission demonstrated precision landing, autonomous operations, and deep-space communication capabilities that directly support future crewed missions.
Beijing’s ambitions go beyond planting a flag. China is targeting the Moon’s south pole, a region believed to contain water ice and valuable resources such as helium-3. Control over these areas could shape future energy systems and space-based industries.
The upcoming Chang’e-7 mission aims to extract lunar water, a critical step toward sustaining long-term human activity on the Moon.
China’s commercial space sector, though younger and less dominant than America’s, is accelerating. State-backed firms and private launch companies are testing reusable rockets, expanding launch capacity, and building satellite constellations.
Quick Reads
View AllWhile the US still leads the global space economy, the gap is narrowing, especially in areas where consistent funding and long-term vision matter more than innovation alone.
The contrast is stark. While China integrates its private firms into a national strategy overseen by the China National Space Administration, the US space program has become fragmented.
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