Reclaiming the Lunar High Ground

NASA’s Artemis II crewed mission sits ready at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39B, with final preparations nearly complete for a 10-day flight that will carry four astronauts around the Moon. It is the first such voyage in more than half a century – since Apollo 17 in 1972.

It is also the opening of a new chapter in the space race between the United States and China.

Just as Earth and its Moon are locked in a gravitational relationship, so too are the United States and China locked in a strategic contest for humanity’s lunar future. The winner could gain an upper hand by control of the Earth-Moon economic zone – the high ground that will shape cislunar operations, resource utilization, and forge a pathway for human treks to Mars.

So far, American ingenuity – manifested in cooperation between an energized, refocused federal government and its stunningly technologically advanced private sector partners – has delivered a competitive edge against Communist China’s state-planned ambitions.

America cannot let off the accelerator now. And NASA is revving up its re-booting of the Moon big time.

In fact, now being readied for launch this year is China’s Chang’e-7 robotic lunar lander, a probe to perform resource surveys in the Moon’s south pole region.

China’s Chang’e-8 Moon lander in 2028 is to conduct on-the-spot utilization of lunar resources – all for the benefit of putting in place an International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), a two-phased Moon base being led by the China National Space Administration in partnership with Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos.

A key question: Could China out-pace NASA’s 21^st century “rebooting” of the moon? They show no signs of ceding the race.

On February 11, China’s Long March-10 prototype booster lifted off and flew a flawless low-altitude demonstration and in-flight abort test of the Mengzhou (“Dream Vessel”) crewed spacecraft — precisely the hardware needed to send Chinese astronauts (called taikonauts) to the lunar surface. The booster is named for the historic 1934-35 “Long March,” the legendary strategic retreat of the Chinese Red Army and Communist forces during the Chinese Civil War that solidified Mao Zedong’s leadership and which has since become a foundational myth of revolutionary perseverance.

And revolution is exactly what lies in store for the global community if China is successful.

The 2025 Annual Report to Congress by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission frames the stakes bluntly: “China has embarked on a whole-of-government strategy to become the world’s preeminent space power,” seeking to “reshape international space governance… and displace the United States as the world’s premier space power.”

Just as U.S. Navy officer Alfred Thayer Mahan’s warned about control of the seas, the nation that controls space controls Earth.

China has plenty of reason to think they will be successful here. Last year, they hit impressive milestones: the first integrated test of the Lanyue (“Embracing the Moon”) lunar lander, qualification of the Wangyu (“Gazing into the Cosmos”) Moon spacesuit, and unveiling of the two-person Tansuo lunar rover.

These are not isolated experiments in China; they are the prerequisite pieces needed to support a crewed landing before 2030.

President Trump has set the American counter: an executive order directing a return of U.S. astronauts to the Moon by 2028 via NASA’s Artemis endeavor and initial elements of a permanent lunar outpost by 2030. This worthy goal is to lay a foundation for lunar economic development, prepare for Mars, and inspire the next generation.

This is a sprint the private sector is running in collaboration with the federal government. The Orion spacecraft that will carry the Artemis II crew was built by legacy powerhouse Lockheed Martin. Other companies involved include Boeing, SpaceX, Blue Origin, and the nimble space startups under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services banner, such as Intuitive Machines, Astrobotic Technology, and Firefly Aerospace.

These American companies are delivering what no single bureaucracy ever could in terms of speed and cost discipline. It is also the kind of iterative genius that remains America’s true competitive advantage, the edge that took Apollo from a dream to dusty footprints on the Moon in just eight years.

China may be snapping puzzle pieces together with state-directed urgency, but America’s private-sector companies are fueling innovation and creativity, putting into practice what the U.S. holds dear – free enterprise. This gets out of engineering and into the realm of political values, but they are just as significant.

As Redwire executive and former NASA official Mike Gold told the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation last September: “When we go to space, we launch not just our spacecraft and astronauts but our values, and we must rededicate ourselves to ensuring that the future reflects American values rather than those of an autocracy hostile to human rights and the very nature of democracy.”

That hearing was aptly titled: “There’s a Bad Moon on the Rise: Why Congress and NASA Must Thwart China in the Space Race.”

Fortunately, there is a new sheriff at NASA, Jared Isaacman – sworn in as the 15th Administrator of the space agency in December 2025 – is a proven commercial-space innovator and private astronaut. Isaacman is laser-focused on making the agency reliable, cost-effective, and technically robust again, but he inherits an organization still recovering from recent expertise losses through layoffs and mission cancellations.

Extraordinarily technologically complex tasks performed under immense time pressure is what Americans do. And, as another factor in their favor, the Moon is no longer a “been there, done that” destination. There is, finally, alignment within and across the American space enterprise of the necessity of going to the Moon first, sharpening skills for sending humans to Mars.

The Moon is now also understood to be a proving ground for sustained human presence, on-location resource utilization, and stimulating economic activity. It is well within America’s power to muster the political will and technological focus to lead this next chapter, to export our values while denying an authoritarian rival both strategic and propaganda triumph.

But to do that, sustained investment and agile public-private partnerships are essential.

As Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin has long reminded us, the Moon is not a finish line but a launchpad. With Artemis II on the pad and this uniquely American partnership firing on all cylinders, the United States is not merely returning – we are reasserting the high ground of the Earth-Moon system before the shadow of authoritarian control can take root.

Leonard David has reported on the space industry for over five decades. He is the author of several books published by National Geographic, such as “Moon Rush: The New Space Race” and “Mission to Mars — My Vision for Space Exploration,” co-authored with Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin.