Trump’s Space Race vs. China: Is the US Losing?

Who’s Winning the ⁣Space Race?

Senator Ted Cruz wanted a promise. A solemn one. For the ⁤last six years, or perhaps the last decade, or the last quarter-century, depending on how it’s counted, the United States and China have ⁢been locked in a⁤ space race-a competition to see‍ which nation could get its people to the Moon. Cruz ‍wanted President Donald Trump’s ⁤nominee to run NASA, Jared⁢ Isaacman, to commit ⁢to ensuring the United States⁣ didn’t lose.

Cruz brought a small surprise to Isaacman’s confirmation ⁤hearing last April. It was a poster of the Moon. On one side were ⁣three astronauts ⁤and⁢ a giant‍ Chinese flag. On the other were two figures in spacesuits, ⁣with the tiny Stars and Stripes planted in the lunar soil. Cruz apologized for the imbalance. “My ‍team used ChatGPT,” explained the senator, who chairs the⁤ committee that oversees NASA.

Then Cruz, with a bit more seriousness, asked Isaacman:⁣ “Do you give us your commitment that you will not allow the scenario on the right of this poster to occur? That China will not beat ‍us to the Moon?”

Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur who had paid for his own ‍missions to space, responded: “Senator, I only see the left side of that poster.”

And the race Against NASA?

It ‍was a perfect answer. And isaacman may well have meant it. But by the time of his testimony, the Trump administration had begun a process that would end up pushing nearly 4,000 NASA employees into retirement. The White House then proposed a massive 24 percent cut ⁣to the agency’s budget. Then Trump withdrew Isaacman’s nomination and appointed a new, part-time acting chief-a guy who boasted on his official NASA bio of being half of “America’s ⁢first and longest-lasting married reality TV couple.” That guy then feuded with Elon Musk, who is building the ⁤module