US-China Space Race Heats Up with Beijing Criticism of NASA Boss
- State media hits back at NASA boss Bill Nelson’s criticism
- Both countries are targeting same part of moon for exploration
The delay of NASA’s first major mission to return to the moon in half a century comes at a sensitive time for the US space agency, as it’s embroiled in a war of words with its main rival in the race to the moon: China.
Minutes after the Artemis I launch was postponed Monday due to engine troubles, China’s main state-backed tabloid, the Global Times, hit out at NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. In an interview with NBC that aired Aug. 28, Nelson criticized China’s approach to space, saying the country was secretive and not open to cooperation. Nelson also repeated an accusation he made in May during a Congressional hearing that the Chinese space program was built on stolen technology. “They’ve gotten a lot of the technology from everybody else and as a result they are very good,” he said.