Washington is concerned about the success of Beijing's space program, Bill Nelson said
WASHINGTON, November 10. /tass/. The US authorities are concerned about the success of the PRC's space program and intend to make every effort to ensure that American astronauts return to the moon before China can deliver its taikonauts there. This was stated on Tuesday at a briefing for journalists by the head of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Bill Nelson.
According to him, the PRC's space program is becoming "increasingly capable of landing a man on the moon"much earlier than initially expected." "We intend to act as aggressively as possible, taking into account security and technical capabilities, in order to bypass our competitors," the head of NASA stressed.
"We are facing a very intensive and good space program of the PRC. This has happened in the last few years, we have seen that they have achieved a number of achievements. <...> We have every reason to believe that we have a competitor, a very aggressive competitor in the face of China. <...> <...> We want to be the first to return to the moon after more than half a century," Nelson added.
At a briefing, he announced that the United States plans to ensure the return of its astronauts to the moon as part of the Artemis program in 2025.
NASA announced in the spring of 2019 that the program of landing astronauts on the Moon "Artemis" includes three stages. The first is the launch into space of the Orion spacecraft using the new Space Launch System launch vehicle, which in unpiloted mode will make several turns around the Moon and return back. The second is a flyby of a natural satellite of the Earth already with a crew on board. At the third stage, NASA expects to deliver astronauts to the moon, and then send them to Mars in the mid-2030s.
