Trump hat einen Wettlauf ins All mit China ausgerufen. Die USA verlieren

If you want to put people back on the moon, don’t gut the agency in charge of getting them there.

Humans haven’t been back to the moon in half a century. Artemis, the US program that is meant to return astronauts to the lunar surface, is a patchwork of old rockets, new tech, and billionaire ambition. Meanwhile, China is quietly racing ahead, and many experts believe it could land astronauts first.

The U.S. program is struggling. The Trump administration started a process that would lay waste to NASA, pushing more than 4,000 employees to quit, and then proposed a 24% budget cut. Meanwhile, the Space Launch System and Orion capsule have cost tens of billions of dollars and flown only once so far.

China has been methodical. Its robotic spacecraft Chang’e-6 returned 4 pounds of moon rocks and soil from the far side in 2024, and it has a crewed mission planned for before 2030.

The question now: who will plant the next flag? We spoke with nine former NASA officials who served at the highest levels under Presidents Trump and Biden, and none were optimistic about America’s chances.

Read the full article: [https://www.wired.com/story/china-us-moon-race-trump-losing/](https://www.wired.com/story/china-us-moon-race-trump-losing/)