For over 50 years, landing a man on the moon has been one of America’s proudest achievements. Not only did we beat the Soviet Union during the first Space Race, but the fact that they never even bothered to come in second has left the moon landings as a rare symbol of American Exceptionalism. That is about to change.
For years now, the People’s Republic of China has been extremely vocal about their desire to send Chinese astronauts to the moon “before 2030.” It is starting to look likely that they will succeed in this goal.
Earlier this year, China conducted several high-profile tests to validate certain aspects of their moon-landing program. These tests revealed the impressive progress the China National Space Administration (CNSA) has made towards their goal of sending humans to the moon.
The first of these tests came in mid-June, when the agency performed a pad-abort test of their next generation spacecraft, the Mengzhou. This capsule, similar in concept to spacecraft used by Western agencies, will keep astronauts alive on their journey to the moon, and more importantly, during reentry back to Earth.
August kicked off with a rather spectacular test of the Lanyue lander. This spacecraft will function as the landing module and will safely bring Chinese astronauts down to the lunar surface.
It will also serve as their way back to space, where they will rendezvous with the Mengzhou capsule in orbit around the moon once their surface mission is over.
The test was effectively a simulated landing, with the spacecraft suspended from a massive steel structure in order to simulate lunar gravity.
Following the landing test, CNSA performed the first static fire test of the Long March 10 rocket. The Long March 10 is the largest and most powerful rocket China has ever designed. It will carry the Mengzhou, the Lanyue, and several Chinese astronauts into space.
A static fire involves filling the rocket, or in this case, part of it, with fuel and starting the engines without actually launching, hence, “static.”
These tests are used to validate different systems in the rocket, including the engines and ground equipment. In this case, it was the first time, as far as we know, that Long March 10 was brought to life.
CNSA followed up just under a month later with a second static fire. These four tests, all within such a short period of time, are a strong indication of the work being done behind the scenes to fulfill China’s goal of a moon landing this decade.
Meanwhile, the US has been preparing its own lunar program, this time with the intention to stay. NASA’s Artemis program has been the agency’s flagship project since its announcement in 2017.
The Artemis Program aims to return humans to the moon (currently planned for 2027) and establish the basis for a permanent human presence.
This plan will aim to directly compete with China’s own moon base program, which they call the International Lunar Research Station. Assuming there are no major setbacks, the moon may soon be home to a community of research bases, similar to Antarctica today.
What will this mean for American Exceptionalism? For decades, the only flag on the surface of the moon has been the Stars and Stripes. This fact has served as a symbolic representation of America’s unique position as the world’s leading superpower.
When this is no longer the case, It will be difficult to compare the two programs and not see a stark divide between them.
The Artemis Program had its timeline updated in 2019 with a more ambitious landing date of 2024, which came and went with no humans returning to the moon. The landing has been delayed many times since then and is likely to be pushed further into 2028.
Meanwhile, CNSA has done the opposite. Throughout the 2010s, the Chinese government liked to use the phrase “by 2030” or “around 2030” when discussing their planned lunar landings. Recently however, that language has subtly, but decisively shifted to “before 2030”.
Only the United States has framed the coming moon landing as a race. The US has steadily been growing more anxious that China could “beat us” back to the moon and have accelerated its rhetoric.