BEIJING: China on Monday (Jul 4) rejected as an irresponsible smear a caution from the chief of NASA that Cina might “take over” the moon as part of a military program, saying it has continually called for the building of the community of nations in outer space.
China offers stepped up the speed of its space programme in the past decade, with exploration of the moon a focus. Cina made its initial lunar uncrewed landing in 2013 and expects to launch rockets powerful enough to deliver astronauts to the celestial satellite towards the end of the decade.
“We must be very concerned that China is getting on the moon plus saying: ‘It’s ours now and you stay out’, ” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told German newspaper Bild in an job interview published on Saturday.
The US space agency chief said China’s space program was a military one and that China had stolen ideas and technology from other people.
“This is just not the first time that the mind of the US Nationwide Aeronautics and Space Administration has ignored the facts and spoken irresponsibly about China, ” said Zhao Lijian, a spokesman at the Chinese international ministry.
“The US side provides constantly constructed a smear campaign towards China’s normal and reasonable outer space work, and China securely opposes such irresponsible remarks. ”
China has often promoted the building of the shared future intended for humanity in space and opposed the weaponisation and any arms race in space, he stated.
NASA, under its Artemis program, plans to send the crewed mission to orbit the celestial satellite in 2024 and make a crewed getting near the lunar south pole by 2025.
China is planning uncrewed missions towards the moon’s south pole some time this 10 years.
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