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China has stepped up the pace of its space programme in the past
decade, with exploration of the moon a focus. China made its
first lunar uncrewed landing in 2013 and expects to launch
rockets powerful enough to send astronauts to the moon towards
the end of this decade.
"We must be very concerned that China is landing on the moon and
saying: 'It's ours now and you stay out'," NASA Administrator
Bill Nelson told German newspaper Bild in an interview published
on Saturday.
The U.S. space agency chief said China's space programme was a
military one and that China had stolen ideas and technology from
others.
"This is not the first time that the head of the U.S. National
Aeronautics and Space Administration has ignored the facts and
spoken irresponsibly about China," said Zhao Lijian, a spokesman
at the Chinese foreign ministry.
"The U.S. side has constantly constructed a smear campaign
against China's normal and reasonable outer space endeavours,
and China firmly opposes such irresponsible remarks."
China has always promoted the building of a shared future for
humanity in outer space and opposed its weaponisation and any
arms race in space, he said.
NASA, under its Artemis programme, plans to send a crewed
mission to orbit the moon in 2024 and make a crewed landing near
the lunar south pole by 2025.
China is planning uncrewed missions to the moon's south pole
some time this decade.
(Reporting by Martin Quin Pollard; writing by Ryan Woo; editing
by Robert Birsel)
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