Chapter National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Jared Isaacman admitted in an interview with CBS News that China could land a man on the Moon before American astronauts return as part of the Artemis 4 mission planned for 2028 (Artemis IV). PWashington's plans are only a few months ahead of the Chinese program.
Isaacman noted that the United States is now locked in a space race with China, with “the Chinese advancing at an incredibly fast pace.”
“The Chinese are moving at an incredibly fast pace, and they are certainly capable of doing what the Soviet Union failed to do in the first space race,” Isaacman said on Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.
According to him, the question is no longer whether Chinese astronauts will land on the Moon, but which country will do it first. The United States also hopes not just to repeat the achievement of the past, but to create a long-term presence on the Moon.
“The question is whether the United States will come back sooner and whether we will do it differently this time. Will we be able to build a base and ensure a permanent presence there? I think so,” Isaacman said.
According to official plans, the United States intends to carry out another lunar landing in 2028, while China expects to send its astronauts before 2030. However, as the head of NASA noted, the actual timing is much closer to each other than it might seem.
“They are targeting 2029, and we are targeting the end of 2028. We are talking about a difference of months, not years,” he said.
Let us recall that in April NASA sent the first manned mission to the Moon as part of the Artemis II program. The Orion spacecraft with four astronauts on board made the first flyby of the Moon in 50 years. The next stage should be the Artemis III mission, during which docking in low Earth orbit with new lunar landers produced by SpaceX and Blue Origin will be tested. The final mission of the program will be the landing of astronauts in the area of the south pole of the Moon, which is planned for 2028 as part of Artemis 4.
In parallel, NASA will create a permanent base on the Moon. The agency previously announced the first three missions to begin long-term operations. The first part of the program is scheduled for no earlier than autumn 2026. It is assumed that by the time astronauts land in 2028, the first infrastructure facilities will already appear on the Moon.
“There will be a lunar rover designed to move on the surface, the first infrastructure will appear, and in 2029 there will be even more of them,” Isaacman said.
The head of NASA believes that already in the early 2030s, the Moon could turn into a kind of analogue of the International Space Station. Crews will work on it to study the lunar environment and prepare future expeditions to Mars.
