A few days ago, NASA Administrator Nelson attended the House of Representatives fiscal year 2025 budget hearing, and he wanted to fight for as much budget as possible for the U.S. space industry. Nielsen said that over the past 20 years, China's space has made extraordinary progress, but he emphasized that China's progress is mysterious, such as the militarization of space, and Nielsen believes that a large part of China's space program is not worthy of the name, and they are actually military programs, but with some degree of camouflage. Nielsen's militarization of China's space industry is groundless and does not have any actual evidence, which also raised questions from many people present.
After repeatedly exaggerating China's capabilities and "ambitions" in space, Nielsen finally tried to see the dagger, saying that the United States must land on the moon before China, otherwise it will be excluded from the lunar landing project, he said that China has a large budget in space, and there are many invisible budgets, which means that compared with China, NASA's budget is far from enough. It is worth mentioning that during this hearing, Nielsen also made a big joke.
Someone at the scene asked him what the Chinese planned to do on the far side of the moon, and Nelson responded that because the far side of the moon was always in darkness, the Americans did not plan to go there, and he did not know why the Chinese were going there. This remark has attracted a large number of criticism from American netizens, because it itself is wrong in terms of professional common sense, the far side of the moon is not always in darkness, it just does not face the earth, in fact, the back of the moon can also receive enough sunlight, and Nelson, as the head of NASA, lacks basic astronomical knowledge, which will undoubtedly greatly reduce the authority of American aerospace.
Some foreign netizens hit the nail on the head and said that the person in charge of NASA should not only understand politics, but also understand astronomical knowledge to a certain extent, at least these basic theories must be understood. Nelson himself actually had some astronomical theory and space experience in his early years, and even went into space in 1986 on the Columbia spacecraft, however, from this low-level mistake, it can be seen that he has long since lost his love for science, but is full of enthusiasm for politics. In recent years, with the rapid development of China's aerospace industry, more and more space programs are in full swing, and NASA has fallen into a high degree of anxiety.
In 2019, the United States launched the Artemis program to return to the moon, codenamed after the ancient Greek goddess of the moon, highlighting the ambitions of the United States to space on the moon. Although NASA's slogan was ambitious, to send astronauts to the moon by 2025, but it did not go well, on January 8 this year, the American "Peregrine" lunar lander tried to make a soft landing on the moon, but there was an accident, which directly affected the follow-up plan of the "Artemis" operation, so that the "Artemis" originally scheduled for 2025 The 3 manned lunar landing program has been postponed to September 2026, and it is uncertain whether the U.S. program will continue to postpone, but according to the current situation of NASA, there is a high possibility that it will continue to be postponed.
In terms of lunar exploration, China is progressing relatively well, after Chang'e-5 brought back 1,731 grams of lunar soil samples, which is also the largest amount of lunar soil samples in the world. At the same time, China has already decided to complete the manned lunar landing program by 2030, and so far, everything is proceeding in an orderly manner, and on the morning of April 24, the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center held a press conference. The spokesman said that the development of the "Mengzhou" manned spacecraft, the "Lanyue" lunar lander and other flying products has been completed and follow-up production and testing are underway.
Aerospace is a major event that can benefit all mankind, and the vast majority of people have their eyes on the earth, but the development potential of the earth is limited, which is why the United States hopes to lead China in aerospace, but denigrating opponents cannot help the United States in aerospace.