NASA is abandoning efforts to build a space station orbiting the Moon, and will instead put $20 billion toward a lunar base, officials announced Tuesday.
The ambitious plan calls for dozens of launches in the next decade, with crews eventually exploring the lunar south pole. “The goal is not flags and footprints but to stay on the Moon,” the US space agency chief said.
The move comes as a new space race unfolds: China aims to send crews to the Moon by 2030. “It’s likely that the next voice transmission from the Moon will be in Mandarin,” a space policy expert said, comparing the dynamic to The Tortoise and the Hare. “NASA has the capabilities, but China has the persistence.”