In news that sounds suspiciously like the opening scene of a Cold War remake set on a lunar soundstage, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has raised his voice and eyebrows over China’s aspirations in outer space, specifically pointing to the Moon as a possible property dispute waiting to happen. Speaking to lawmakers on Capitol Hill this week with the urgency of a man whose neighbor just bought a suspiciously large telescope, Nelson suggested that China might be eyeing parts of the lunar surface for something more exclusive than sightseeing.
“We believe that a lot of their so-called civilian space program is a military program,” said Nelson, thoughtfully casting shade without assistance from the Moon itself, which ironically has no atmosphere. He warned that China’s rapidly advancing space ambitions could morph from bold exploration to territorial acquisition, presumably with less American flag-planting and more tightly controlled real estate access.
Nelson pointed to the South China Sea as a precedent, describing how China constructed artificial islands and then claimed those newly minted sandbars as sovereign territory. His implication was clear: give them a lunar rock and they’ll take a crater.
“If you doubt that, look at what they did with the Spratly Islands.”
Of course, China has repeatedly insisted its space program is peaceful and purely exploratory, although Nelson gestures at the “dual-use” potential of space gadgets which could scan for water as easily as they could scan for who’s drinking it. The race here, apparently, is not just about boots on the Moon but boots on the water-ice-laden lunar south pole — a key region that both nations are eyeing like it holds the final swig in a desert.
NASA, all the while, is busy getting its Artemis program back on track after a few lunar-sized delays. Its goal is to return astronauts to the Moon by 2026, ideally before it turns into the world’s most disputed, least hospitable Airbnb. Meanwhile, China aims to land its own taikonauts by 2030, just in time to ask why the Americans never left a guestbook.
As the two powers ramp up their countdowns, the Moon may soon find itself the celestial equivalent of a hot real estate listing with two aggressive bidders and no homeowners’ association in sight.
The Moon may be lifeless, but apparently it has quite the social calendar coming up.