![\"Shenzhou-20](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/\/7a67b5b3-f1ad-4f66-9b57-8fc55a7306e0.jpg\")
<\/p>\nFor the estimated 200 million Americans who watched that momentous moment live in 2029 the timing was inconvenient. Unlike in 1969, it happened in the early hours of the morning. But they watched anyway. <\/p>\n
So did much of the world, coming together like it had exactly 60 years earlier.<\/p>\n
Once again there were two humans on the moon. The video quality was better but the pride and the joy felt in the world\u2019s most powerful country were the same. Even if that country \u2014 for whom this event happened at a more civilised hour \u2014 was by then a different nation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A Long March-2F rocket carrying three Chinese astronauts to the country\u2019s permanent space station earlier this year<\/p>\n
CHEN XIAO\/VCG\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n
The astronauts took one small step and unfurled a flag. Billions watched as the yellow stars of communist China appeared on the moon.<\/p>\n
This was the scenario considered last week in the US Senate. And, to give a sense of the mood, one could do worse than quote the title of the meeting: \u201cThere\u2019s a bad moon on the rise: Why Congress and Nasa must thwart China in the space race<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n This is, it should be said, somewhat more forceful than the titles the commerce, science and transportation committee ordinarily opts for, but then so was the language.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are in a 21st-century space race,\u201d said Ted Cruz, a Republican senator. \u201cCommunist China is not playing by the same rules and they are aggressively investing resources to dominate space.\u201d <\/p>\n Buzz Aldrin walks on the surface of the moon in July 1969<\/p>\n HERITAGE SPACE\/HERITAGE IMAGES\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n Allen Cutler, president of the Coalition for Deep Space Exploration, a lobby group, expanded on the significance. \u201cThe country that lands on the moon first will shape the rules of engagement in space for decades to come,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u2022 Why the US wants to put a nuclear reactor on the moon<\/a><\/p>\n Mike Gold, who is helping draw up the US moon plans, explained what this could mean: \u201cIf they get there first, we will see a global realignment that will impact our economy, our tax base, our ability to innovate and our national security.\u201d<\/p>\n Other experts are sceptical about whether there is a need to be worried.<\/p>\n On paper, there should not be undue concern. Nasa has its own lunar exploration programme. The first astronauts are due to land in 2027, well before China\u2019s target of about 2030<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, the US has set and missed previous targets. In 1989, George H W Bush unveiled the Space Exploration Initiative with plans to return to the moon in the 2010s. In 2004 his son George W Bush set a new date of 2020. In 2017 President Trump signed Space Policy Directive-1, which aimed for 2024. Under Joe Biden, that became 2026.<\/p>\n Whereas China, untroubled by different presidents, changing priorities and difficult questions about budgets, has just kept plugging on.<\/p>\n Jim Bridenstine, a former Nasa administrator, told the hearing: \u201cUnless something changes, it is highly unlikely the United States will beat China\u2019s projected timeline<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n But some observers were less clear about whether this actually mattered. Sa\u2019id Mosteshar, director of the London Institute of Space Policy and Law, said: \u201cThey talk a lot about these geopolitical and security risks. They mention all these economic benefits. They don\u2019t say what they are.\u201d<\/p>\n Chinese astronauts return to earth in inner Mongolia in April after a six-month stay in space<\/p>\n CNS\/AFP\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n China lands unmanned spacecraft on the dark side of the moon<\/p>\n This time, the US and China are both planning on building moon bases. The idea is that they would then use water at the poles<\/a> for fuel, and perhaps start the rudiments of a space economy \u2014 supporting industry and power generation in space. But so far, despite plans for asteroid mining<\/a> and helium harvesting, the only profitable aspects of space remain telecommunications in orbit.<\/p>\n Some experts have argued that one reason it might be good to get to the moon first is the claim that whoever wins the race can then set the rules. Space is already governed, though, by the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, said Mosteshar, who is sceptical. \u201cIt\u2019s not clear to me why standing on the poles before the US means they can then set the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n Bleddyn Bowen, associate professor of astropolitics at Durham University, said that there could be still informal ways that they benefit. \u201cThe more they establish themselves, the more influence they\u2019ll have in setting best practices. They will lead in lunar science.\u201d <\/p>\n Nasa is already planning beyond the moon by preparing to put astronauts on Mars<\/p>\n DANIELLE VILLASANA<\/p>\n And in earthly matters?<\/p>\n \u201cThe people making these arguments had particular reasons to make these arguments. They have constituencies that will benefit from this, or have worked on these programmes for so long they want to see them fulfilled. So they try to scare Congress into funding all these things with the whole big scary China thing.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would be big for China, of course. It would be a huge legitimising thing for the Communist Party, who could say, \u2018We\u2019re amazing, we are overturning the century of humiliation.\u2019 But the material benefits will be in lunar science. There\u2019s no military or direct economic benefit and there won\u2019t be for a very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n In his view everyone should calm down a little and also remember a rather pertinent fact. \u201cA lot of the narratives and rhetoric around this is about how, \u2018China can\u2019t be first\u2019. That is correct. They can\u2019t be. Because the Amercians were first, in 1969. It\u2019s absolutely bonkers,\u201d Bowen said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the estimated 200 million Americans who watched that momentous moment live in 2029 the timing was inconvenient.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-135621","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Astronaut](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/\/f8043ffe-c494-4d16-8d01-40836fca4f7a.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Chinese](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/\/f3642716-952d-4e04-8fff-79a8074f8e3e.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Interior](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/\/9b802f91-4d7c-4448-8d5b-ce289ea1dbb2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n