{"id":277176,"date":"2026-02-10T16:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T16:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/277176\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T16:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T16:43:09","slug":"will-musks-moon-pivot-put-spacex-on-collision-course-with-chinas-lunar-ambitions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/277176\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Musk\u2019s moon pivot put SpaceX on collision course with China\u2019s lunar ambitions?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elon Musk has pivoted from his long-standing focus on Mars, announcing an ambitious plan to set up a \u201cself-growing city\u201d on the moon in less than a decade.<\/p>\n

The plan could see Musk\u2019s aerospace company, SpaceX, competing for prime space with China\u2019s planned International Lunar Research Station<\/a>, which Beijing aims to establish by 2035.<\/p>\n

While it is possible both the US and China could have bases on the moon within a decade, a space expert said it would require massive infrastructure that neither country had put in place yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor those unaware, SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the moon,\u201d Musk wrote on social media earlier this week, adding that the company could potentially achieve the goal in less than a decade, while doing so on Mars would take at least 20 years.<\/p>\n

Musk\u2019s statement is a 180-degree turn from a little over a year ago, when he posted on social media: \u201cWe\u2019re going straight to Mars. The moon is a distraction.\u201d<\/p>\n

The billionaire entrepreneur explained this week that while the company still intended to begin work on a Mars city within five to seven years, the moon would be the initial focus to secure the \u201cfuture of civilisation\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elon Musk has pivoted from his long-standing focus on Mars, announcing an ambitious plan to set up a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[6282,14504,120514,4177,607,103331,3146,516,22040,102433,155939,6248,8036,3323,111,139,69,126910,8105,147,392,1503,5147,11038],"class_list":["post-277176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-artemis","tag-artemis-2","tag-artemis-ii","tag-beijing","tag-china","tag-china-aerospace-science-and-technology-corporation","tag-earth","tag-elon-musk","tag-international-lunar-research-station","tag-lunar-base","tag-lunar-research-base","tag-mars","tag-moon","tag-nasa","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-quentin-parker","tag-russia","tag-science","tag-space","tag-spacex","tag-starship","tag-university-of-hong-kong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}