Giant leap for China in moon race as SpaceX struggles to get its Starship rocket off the ground

“We’re undertaking a campaign that requires many early test flights to rapidly mature and prove out the critical systems needed to safely land Nasa astronauts on the lunar surface,” he said.

He said though flight safety is important, so are innovation and maintaining US leadership in space.

“We are at an inflection point with incredible innovation in commercial space launch. The criticality is especially true in the face of strategic competition from state actors like China,” Gerstenmaier told the subcommittee.

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SpaceX Starship, world’s largest rocket, explodes minutes after lift-off on first test flight

SpaceX Starship, world’s largest rocket, explodes minutes after lift-off on first test flight

“Licensing, including environmental approval, often takes longer than rocket development. This should never happen, and it’s only getting worse,” he said.

Even as Starship is facing regulatory hurdles – and technical ones which made Nasa officials openly worried about its readiness by 2025 – the US is still well ahead of China when it comes to preparing for a crewed moon landing.

Moon race: a visual explainer of lunar missions since the Cold War

Much of the rocket development work is still in its early stages.

“China is working on a new generation of rockets for crewed flights to the moon and low earth orbit,” Zhang Zhi, chief engineer of China’s launch vehicle systems, told state broadcaster CCTV on Wednesday.

“Landing on the moon wouldn’t be our ultimate goal,” Yang said. “We’ll go explore deeper space and use resources from there to serve human society.”