The return of Chang'e-6 marks another big step forward in China's space industry. At the same time, the reaction of the United States is very fierce, and recently NASA has begun to hype up the "space race" between China and the United States, which they unilaterally imagined in the direction of competition, and NASA Director Bill Nelson bluntly said that the United States and China are in a "space race" and mentioned the possible "space threat" caused by Russia. So, why does NASA keep hyping up the "Sino-US space race"?
We should proceed to this issue from the perspective of the national interests of the United States. The development of space technology is not a trivial matter, even the development of space-related business by private companies requires the support of all walks of life and a large amount of money, and it is inevitable that major countries will pay attention to the development of this cause. The "Apollo" space program that the United States is proud of, is now obviously catching up and surpassed by China, a hegemonic country of course cares about its own suppressive power in the field of high technology, and now China has not challenged the United States, but the record-setting Chinese have made NASA no longer the most representative of human cutting-edge technology on Earth. China did not want to challenge the status of the United States, but it shattered the mood of the US space agency to "see all the mountains and small mountains", and even more shaken the hegemony of the United States.
There are really too many places for the United States to spend money right now. The Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the containment of China's development, the operation of US military bases around the world, and the maintenance of the hegemony of the US dollar. Nowadays, the United States has obviously spent a lot of money on the development of the military industry, but the development of the US space agency also needs funds, and for the sake of funds, what can their director do? Naturally, the development of space is linked to military development, and the threat from China and Russia makes it easier for NASA to obtain funding. The general direction of the development of the United States in the past two years has been to set China and Russia as competitors and let the military industry maintain the hegemony of the dollar.
In fact, it is not that NASA is in a hurry to militarize outer space, but that it is easier for US astronautics, which is moving closer to this aspect, to obtain funds. Of course, in order to develop militarization, the US space agency will certainly make certain plans and changes. However, to achieve the goal of militarizing outer space, either a large amount of money from the military-industrial complex will be injected, or the US government will go all out to develop the space force.
From the root cause, it is not so simple to put an end to the militarization of US space. In the past two years, the United States has already tasted the sweetness of developing its military industry, and it is certainly impossible for them to give up easily; now the international law on the militarization of space is not so perfect, and the United States is very likely to take advantage of this loophole. Once NASA begins to move into the military aspect, it will not stop easily. Only by paying attention to precautions, strengthening itself, maintaining strategic focus, and continuing to steadily develop its space industry can China have a chance to leave the United States with no plans to do and no space to exploit.