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Frank Tang

The United States will redouble efforts to ensure its return to the moon ahead of China and also establish an enduring presence on Earth's natural satellite to entrench the country’s presence, President Donald Trump’s pick to head the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said on Wednesday during a Senate confirmation hearing.
Such a sense of urgency for the US to accelerate its pace in this “second space race” has haunted Capitol Hill, as Beijing, a strategic rival framed by Washington, is catching up quickly, from low-earth-orbit satellite communications to space stations and Mars exploration.
“America will return to the moon before our great rival, and we will establish an enduring presence to understand and realise the scientific, economic and national security value on the lunar surface,” said Jared Isaacman, an e-commerce tycoon who commanded the first all-civilian space flight in 2021 and was also the first private citizen conducting a spacewalk in 2024.
This was Isaacman's second hearing before the Senate, since Trump withdrew his nomination soon after the first hearing in April. If approved, which is likely before year-end given the bipartisan support shown in Wednesday’s Senate committee, he would oversee an agency with some 14,000 employees and a roughly US$25 billion budget.
“We are in a great competition with a rival that has the will and means to challenge American exceptionalism across multiple domains, including in the high ground of space,” the 42-year-old billionaire told the Senate commerce committee.


“This is not the time for delay, but for action, because if we fall behind, if we make a mistake, we may never catch up, and the consequences could shift the balance of power here on earth,” he warned.
A new moon landing could become the most eye-catching moment of the China-US rivalry, which has already played out across trade and technology in recent years.
Although the US became in 1969 the only country to land humans on the moon and has long dominated the sector ever since, China’s rapid advances in satellites, rockets and space stations – and particularly its ambitions in deeper space exploration – have continued to sound alarms in Washington.
China has already sent a few unmanned lunar rovers, returned the first-ever samples from the moon’s far side, and also set the goal of sending its astronauts to the surface of the moon by 2030.
“They went from a single taikonaut in orbit approximately 20 years ago to having a space station where they’re launching at an extraordinary cadence,” said Isaacman.
“So I think this is why there needs to be urgency to take a close look at Nasa, what’s going right, and do a lot more of that and the things that are going wrong, to clear those obstacles so we can get back to doing, you know, world-changing missions again.”
Currently, Nasa is running Project Artemis, which is set to put Americans back on the moon by 2028 together with private firms such as SpaceX.
Ted Cruz, chairman of the Senate commerce committee, described it as the second space race after that with the Soviet Union, saying that “the United States must remain the unquestioned leader in space exploration”.
“The agency must prioritise if we are to beat China back to the moon and then to Mars.”
The US concerns also jump over the budget cut amid the One Big Beautiful Act. About 4,000 Nasa employees took buyouts the Trump administration offered in January and April, equivalent to a 20 per cent headcount reduction.
In contrast, the China National Space Administration has kept growing in terms of exploration tasks and manpower. Last week, it announced it would set up a new department to oversee the rapidly growing commercial space activities and vowed to forge a coordinated commercial space ecosystem by 2027.
The US is also seeking to maximise the remaining life of the International Space Station and is hoping to pursue a financially viable model by cracking the code on the orbital economy.
If the International Space Station retires in 2030 as planned, China’s Tiangong would become the only operational space station in orbit.
“We can never accept a gap in our capabilities again, not in low Earth orbit or our ability to reach the moon,” the Nasa nominee said.


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Isaacman says Washington must move quickly to stay ahead of Beijing amid intensifying rivalry in space exploration


Isaacman says Washington must move quickly to stay ahead of Beijing amid intensifying rivalry in space exploration.


Trump’s Nasa pick vows US will beat China back to the moon

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Isaacman says Washington must move quickly to stay ahead of Beijing amid intensifying rivalry in space exploration

Isaacman says Washington must move quickly to stay ahead of Beijing amid intensifying rivalry in space exploration