NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has stated that he is concerned with China's lunar missions because he believes that Beijing wants to claim the moon for itself. His comments came in an interview with German news outlet Bild.
Nelson argued that Chinese space exploration should be everyone's concern because one day Beijing will allegedly land on the moon and say "it's ours now and you stay away".
The NASA chief and former US politician went on to claim that Chinese lunar missions will be "military" ones, and that Beijing will use its moon base to study the possibility of shooting down other countries’ satellites.
While Nelson praised China's overall progress in space exploration after sending several devices to the moon, he immediately tried to downplay the advances by claiming that they were based on technology Beijing allegedly "stole" from other countries.
The NASA chief did not elaborate on what countries he had in mind, nor did he offer any evidence to back up any of his claims.
China has stated that it plans to not only send astronauts to the moon by 2025, but also establish a foothold there by 2035, cooperating with Russia in that regard. The US has similar plans, which include the establishment of both a lunar base and a space station orbiting the Earth's satellite. The latter could be used to refuel and launch spacecraft towards Mars, another destination in NASA's crosshairs.
Notably, neither the US nor China have spoken of using a lunar station for military purposes, although certain US military projects suggest attempts to militarize space exist in direct violation of international agreements.