In 1962, at Rice University, President John F Kennedy delivered his famous “We Choose the Moon” speech. During the speech, the President said, “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” The President set the United States on a path with the stars, and the hardworking people of our nation rose to the occasion. The space program lit a fire within the spirit of Americans. As a result of Kennedy’s “within the decade” pledge, the United States entered a golden age of technological and scientific advancement that had never been seen before. The U.S. invested between .5% and 4% of the federal budget between 1962 and 1969, amounting to 25.8 billion dollars, which is 318 billion when adjusted for inflation (Pastrone, 2024). Admittedly, 318 billion is an astounding amount of money, but entirely worth it. That investment and the work of over 400,000 American workers culminated in Neal Armstrong being the first man to step foot on the Moon on July 16th, 1969. Additionally, studies reveal that for every dollar invested in the Apollo program, the United States economy received a return of five to seven dollars (Jayamohan, 2023). The Space Race of the 1960s demonstrated what a well-funded NASA could accomplish and how NASA’s innovations could be applied to other industries. 

Following the Space Race of the 1960s and the defeat of the Soviet Union, NASA’s expense quickly became hard to justify. Without the support of the political elite, NASA slowly had its funds redirected. Despite the budgetary restrictions, NASA still had some impressive achievements, such as the Space Shuttle program, the Hubble telescope, Mars rovers, and the establishment of the ISS. However, these achievements have yet to be rewarded with increases in funding. As of 2024, NASA receives 34.10 billion dollars annually for a whopping 0.3% of the federal budget (USASPENDING, 2024). The nearest competitor to the U.S. in space spending is China, at 14.15 billion dollars. 

Not only is China the nearest spender to the United States, but they are highly motivated and ambitious. With Xi Jinping at the helm, China has arguably risen to superpower status. One of Xi’s many priorities to reinforce China’s place in the world is to have a space program that challenges and surpasses that of the United States. Xi’s “eternal dream” is to make the country a space power (CNN, 2024). Due to political pressures applied by the United States, China was excluded from the ISS, while China’s close ally Russia was included. By isolating Beijing from initiatives like the ISS, the U.S. forced China to go its own way in space. This led to Beijing developing the view that space is becoming a zone of contention in which they must prevail. The West isolated China geopolitically and in space, leading to the development of a well-funded, highly sophisticated space program that is already catching up to NASA regarding technological capability and achievement. There are also serious concerns that China is investing heavily in space-related military applications. Enhanced capabilities include advanced spy satellites, anti-satellite missiles, improved satellite hijacking capabilities, and doubling its satellites in orbit between 2019 and 2021 from 250 to 499 (NBC, 2023). These improvements have implications for geopolitical relations as these enhanced capabilities can severely hinder the U.S. military’s operations in the event of a conflict. Beyond space investment’s geopolitical, technological, and scientific benefits lies a stronger motivator for Xi and China. That is the propaganda victory that comes from success in space and outperforming the United States and NASA. When Neal Armstrong took the historic first steps on the Moon, it brought a period of national pride and unity for a country in the grips of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement. Xi wants to recreate that victory for his people and inspire that same sense of national pride. In doing so, China would be the first communist nation to put astronauts, scoring a massive win for the CCP and the 71-year-old President Xi cementing a significant part of his political legacy (CNN, 2024). 

China’s current goals should raise more eyebrows in Washington than they currently have—notably China’s plan for establishing a permanent moonbase and their Mars operations. In 2024, China executed a groundbreaking operation when the Chang'e-6 successfully returned samples from the far side (south pole) of the Moon, a world first. This operation and those in the future will pave the way for their permanent moonbase, which will be installed in 2030. A moonbase installation has many implications, especially since China assembled a coalition of nations to join it on the base, including Russia, Egypt, Argentina, the UAE, and several others (Atalayar,2024). 

Due to the war in Ukraine, Russia has not provided any substantial investment in the project. The lack of international financial support has left China to foot the bill, and they have. Ownership of a station on the Moon is new territory for international relations. Although numerous treaties and agreements like the Artemis Accords outline the U.S. international base, China has been known to violate these agreements in the past (Cheng, 2023). Head of NASA, Bill Nelson, said the U.S. and China were “in effect, in a race” to return to the Moon, and he feared that China wanted to stake territorial claims (Davidson, 2024). A strong case can be made that China could use its base as grounds to assert territorial claims over portions of the Moon. Prof Kazuto Suzuki of Tokyo University said it best, “Generally speaking, China wants to be first, so they have the right to dominate and monopolize the resources. If you have the resources in your hand, then you have a huge advantage in the future of space exploration.” (Davidson, 2024) However, controlling one resource is a significant ambition of China and the United States to use their respective lunar bases as a stepping stone for Mars launches utilizing lunar ice found at the south pole for fuel and oxygen production (World Economic Forum, 2023).   

China and the United States’ final and most important goal is a successful soil sample return mission from Mars. Both the United States and China plan to launch this mission. The United States has had the Perseverance rover collecting its samples since it arrived in 2021. The retrieval mission was on track to launch before China, with an estimated budget of 3 billion dollars. However, after an independent review, the expected cost ballooned to 11 billion dollars and delayed the launch to 2033.

Conversely, China is far ahead of NASA, with its launch date five years earlier in 2028 (Clark, 2024). China is well known for sticking to their publicly announced deadlines regardless of how ambitious they may be. This reliability has amounted to an expected sample return in 2031, which soundly beats the United States. Now, why are these samples so important? It would be the first time a sample has been returned from another world. However, more importantly, scientists believe Mars could have harbored life since it has an atmosphere and potentially water. The first country to successfully return the samples would, in effect, have the first crack at potentially discovering life on another planet (CSIS, 2024). This discovery is so significant that it would fundamentally change how we view space and our place in the universe. Failure to pay that price risks eroding national prestige and passing on the chance for possibly the most significant discovery in history—life on another planet—to China. Should that happen, for generations, Americans would look back on this moment in disappointment and wonder how such a history-making prize slipped away. However, returning material from Mars also carries unquantifiable contamination risks to the Earth’s environment (Scoles, 2022). If China were the first nation to retrieve samples, they would be responsible for ensuring the entire world’s safety, and an incorrect determination of the samples’ safety could be disastrous. 

The United States needs to take space seriously again. After decades of complacency, we have allowed China to establish solid foundations and capabilities that will soon be able to match our own. We have allowed China to seriously threaten United Space dominance in space and create alliances detrimental to U.S. interests. It is no longer enough to simply be the country that first put a man on the Moon. It is insufficient to devote a measly 0.3% of the federal budget to such a crucial field. The United States can no longer afford to pretend like we are not in a new space race with an opponent who has just as much, if not more, motivation and expertise than the former Soviet Union. China has demonstrated that when they say they will accomplish something, they meet expectations and do so at the publicly announced deadline. In recent years, NASA has consistently pushed launch dates, scrubbed missions, and exhibited atrocious budgetary practices, allowing politicians to justify cutting NASA’s funding (Mann, 2024). Many outstanding achievements have come out of NASA in recent years, like the James Webb Space Telescope. However, the reality is that we are falling short of our primary objectives, like the Mars sample retrieval mission and the Artemis Program (Davidson, 2024). With China angling for its 2030 manned mission to the Moon and Xi’s geopolitical victory, the current window for the Artemis 3 mission, 2026, must be kept. Despite speculation that there will be further delays to a potential 2028 launch time, this must be avoided (Berger, 2024) to prevent China from beating the United States back to the Moon. 

Despite NASA’s setbacks, this is not the time to slash its budget. In order to stay competitive, the U.S. needs to commit more money to NASA. Beyond the financial commitment, there must be a similar political commitment. Similar to how President Kennedy galvanized the nation, the next President must create a similar sense of urgency around the issue of this new space race with China. The United States will undergo significant technological, scientific, and economic growth by creating a political climate where space is a priority again. It can inspire a generation of scientists and engineers with new ideas and innovations ( DeGrasse Tyson, 2012).  With the birth of private corporations like SpaceX and veteran corporations like Boeing and Lockheed Martin, the United States has an asset that China does not: a private space industry. Private industry is an advantage that can be seen through efforts like SpaceX’s Starship program, which is shaping up to be the new method of travel to the ISS and beyond (Brumfiel, 2024). By creating a climate that prioritizes these innovators and makes careers in the field more enticing, the United States can reassert dominance in space and reap the countless benefits of a rich culture of space exploration.  

With China openly challenging the dominance of the United States in space, NASA must start receiving the type of funding that can support a total victory and nurture a new generation of scientists and engineers. It is also imperative that NASA undergo severe restructuring to optimize spending inc, raise the quality of projects, and decrease the time projects take. The United States needs to increase NASA’s funding to 0.8% to 1% of the federal budget to accomplish the current goals of NASA and outpace China in the new space race (DeGrasse Tyson, 2012). Furthermore, the political climate of the United States must acknowledge this as our next great national challenge. We win this race by inspiring the country to support NASA and our space industry. Only a strong NASA can beat China to the Moon and Mars. Only a strong NASA will be able to inspire the people of the United States to aspire for greatness amongst the stars.  

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