Though few Americans may be aware of it, the United States is now locked in a new space race with China that carries major implications for the U.S. economy and national security.
While the United States’ space program has floundered for years under bureaucratic bloat and mismanagement, Beijing has been working at breakneck speed to become a dominant power in space. The communist nation kicked off 2025 with more good news on that front, announcing the successful launch of its Shijian-25 satellite, which will be used for “satellite fuel replenishment and life extension service technology verification” – a major step forward for the Chinese space program.
China also has two crewed missions planned for 2025, along with an uncrewed mission to return samples from a near-Earth asteroid.
But China’s ultimate ambition is the Moon. Beijing revealed this week that it plans to send a “flying robot” to the far side of the moon next year to search for frozen water. Last year, the Chang’e-6 lunar module collected the first ever samples from the far side of the Moon, an accomplishment that Chinese President Xi Jinping hailed as “another landmark achievement in building a strong country in space, and science and technology.”
Beijing’s lunar dreams don’t stop with unmanned flights and research missions, however. As the Global Times, a state-run Chinese newspaper, reported last year, China intends to “launch a moon base mission as early as 2026” and land a man on the Moon by 2030. While this “moon base,” which will theoretically be located on the South Pole of the Moon, is ostensibly for research purposes, it could also be the key to unlocking great economic wealth for China – and threatening the United States.
Estimates vary widely, but the Moon could contain trillions of dollars in resources, potentially setting the stage for a lunar gold rush between nations. Notably, water ice detected at the lunar poles can be converted into hydrogen and oxygen, serving as propellants for spacecraft. This capability could reduce the cost of deep-space missions by providing refueling stations on the Moon, thereby decreasing the need to launch heavy fuel loads from Earth.
Additionally, the Moon contains rare minerals and metals, including helium-3, a potential fuel for nuclear fusion. While the feasibility of helium-3 fusion remains under research, its abundance on the Moon presents a long-term economic incentive for development on the lunar surface.
From a national security perspective, establishing a presence on the Moon also offers military advantages. The Moon’s position allows for strategic placement of communication and surveillance infrastructure, enhancing a nation’s capabilities in space-based intelligence and reconnaissance. If China were indeed able to establish a Moon base, it could threaten virtually any U.S. satellite.
The United States has its own plan to get back to the Moon – the Artemis program – but it has been mired in endless delays and cost overruns. Artemis 2, the first crewed mission, was scheduled for 2024, but that timeline has now been pushed to 2027. After spending nearly $100 billion, Artemis has yet to get even a single astronaut off the ground.
In light of China’s advancements, multiple American officials are now warning that the delays to the Artemis program have become a national security threat. In a recent interview, outgoing NASA administrator Bill Nelson cautioned that if China builds a permanent lunar outpost before America, they could claim large swaths, if not all, of the Moon as Chinese territory.
“I don’t want them to get to the south pole and claim, ‘This is ours. You stay out,’” Nelson said.
When Trump won re-election last November, the future of the Artemis mission was immediately cast into doubt. Space entrepreneur and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, now one of Trump’s top advisors, is one of the program’s most vocal critics. In a 2024 Christmas post, he argued, “The Artemis architecture is extremely inefficient, as it is a jobs-maximizing program, not a results-maximizing program. Something entirely new is needed.”
Yet Musk isn’t merely critical of Artemis – he opposes returning to the Moon at all, calling it a “distraction” from his ultimate goal, which is sending a manned mission to Mars. Notably, during his second inaugural address, Trump pledged to “pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.”
But Trump has thus far offered little indication that he intends to cancel the Artemis project, which enjoys strong bipartisan backing in Congress. Returning America to the Moon was one of Trump’s top space priorities during his 2016 and 2020 campaigns, and it seems unlikely that he will punt on that goal now.
Regardless, what has become increasingly clear is that America’s ambitions in space aren’t just about national greatness or advancing human knowledge. Like the Soviet Union a generation ago, China is angling to become the superior force on the final frontier and gain an enormous advantage in the ongoing great power competition with the United States.
Whether through NASA, enterprising private-sector visionaries like Elon Musk, or some combination of the two, America’s elected leaders have a responsibility to ensure the United States remains the preeminent power in space.
Andrew Shirley is a veteran speechwriter and AMAC Newsline columnist. His commentary can be found on X at @AA_Shirley.
China hasn’t made it any secret that it intends to overtake the United States on all fronts, including space, by 2035. President Xi and the Chinese Communist Party have talked in a fairly detailed manner on what that means in terms of Earth orbital space platforms (both satellites and space stations), lunar bases, asteroid mining, and outer planetary goals. They see it as providing them with a strategic military and materials resource advantage over not only the United States, but the world as a whole.
Both Russia and China have already demonstrated that they can field space-based weapons to go after out essential satellites in Earth orbit, so no one should assume either country is going to adhere to the old non-proliferation of weapons in space agreement. The United States should NOT be the lone country operating with one or both hands tied behind its back, as the Chinese and even Russia at some point move steadily forward.
Our advantage is we now have President Trump back in the White House and he will no doubt reverse every single bad decision both Obama and Biden made in terms of both defense and space. We also have Elon Musk, who has proven he and SpaceX can out innovate not only every other private company involved in the area of space, but also out do other countries as well. So, for the near-term, I’m not worried that the United States will allow itself to fall further and further behind like we did under both Obama and Biden. Both of whom canceled valuable high-tech defense and space efforts for political reasons to help our adversaries. As long as we have smart, clear-minded people who understand what is needed to succeed, like we currently do, we will match or exceed whatever the Chinese have on the drawing board.
My only concern is if the American people are ever foolish enough to put any Democrat back in the White House or hand control of Congress back to the Democrats. If that should occur, we would quickly backslide and lose any advantage we have gained.
NASA has been a part of the “Deep State” since the 1970’s, bloated, inefficient and politically motivated. Obama and Biden had it on various “snipe hunts” chasing “Climate Change”, DEI and other worthless pursuits. Private industry has made greater strides in space travel than NASA in a shorter number of years. NASA needs to be gutted and refocused on beating China in space, not fielding Transexual Astronauts.
President Trump should listen to Musk, who has been successful in his satellite launches where the government has not been.
Peace on Earth is much more important than this space race. It will not matter unless wars on Earth stop. And furthermore, space race should be suspended if it is being funded by increasing Federal Debt.