Senators will hear from witnesses this week on how the US can beat China in the new “space race” to return humans to the Moon. China’s space ambitions, however, extend far beyond cislunar space.
Beijing is pressing ahead with an ambitious space science effort designed to close the gap with—or even exceed—US capabilities in the coming decades. If our elected leaders believe that America’s continued leadership in space is paramount, they must press our national lead in space science.
Budgetary reality: Unfortunately, the White House’s fiscal 2026 budget for NASA would do the opposite. It proposes a unilateral retreat of US space science activities, cutting overall funding by 47% and terminating 40+ active and planned science missions in every major discipline.
China’s ambitions for space science, by contrast, present a striking inverse to America’s fading aspirations.
- Where the US would abandon its historic Mars Sample Return effort, China is readying its own mission for a 2028 launch.
- While the US would turn off its only spacecraft at Jupiter, China is working on a major Jovian mission to launch by the end of the decade.
- Where the US would wipe out its entire suite of Venus exploration projects, China proposes to capture and return a sample of the Venusian atmosphere.
- As the US would switch off a planetary defense mission en route to the asteroid Apophis (which will narrowly but safely miss Earth in 2029), China is considering sending a swarm of spacecraft.
Across the board, China is seeking out international partners while the US abandons more than a dozen science projects with Europe, Japan, and other allies.
China’s big plans: After an extensive review of technical reports, official statements, and recent reporting, it is clear that China is pursuing a systematic, well-funded strategy for space science at the Moon and beyond, with eight additional missions planned by 2027, another 16 by 2035, and perhaps 30 or more by 2050.
Guiding this effort is China’s new long-term strategy for space science and its first-ever “decadal survey,” modeled after the US’s once-per-decade reports that guide NASA’s investments in space science. Priorities include investigations into the origins of the universe, habitability of planets and exoplanets, and gravitational waves—all areas of cutting-edge science that push the limits of current technology.
These ambitions should be taken seriously. In the last five years, China’s space program has rapidly built a track record of headline-grabbing firsts that demonstrate impressive technical sophistication and national commitment. China has become:
- The first country to land on the far side of the Moon, with Chang’e-4.
- The first to return samples from the far side, with Chang’e-6.
- The third country to independently launch and operate a crewed space station, with Tiangong.
- The second state—after the United States — to land and operate on Mars, with Tianwen-1.
At a press conference outlining China’s science strategy in 2024, Wang Chi, the director of the National Space Science Center at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, stated his confidence that the nation will “catch up”, noting China’s “disciplinary advantages, human resources, and the maturity level of the engineering and technology”.
US President Donald Trump has made plain his desire to compete with China on a global stage. And given statements from the acting NASA administrator, Sean Duffy, that the US will “win today’s space race, and tomorrow’s space race,”, the proposal to slash science funding at NASA represents both a profound internal contradiction—and a significant strategic misstep for America’s larger interests.
Congress saves the day? Fortunately, both the House and the Senate have moved to address this error. The draft NASA authorization bill released by the Senate includes supportive language for space science, including key programs such as Mars Sample Return and the Habitable Worlds Observatory. House and Senate appropriators have also advanced funding legislation that largely protects NASA science.
But further congressional action is needed. Unrelated political issues are stalling both appropriations bills, and despite clear congressional intent, the White House’s Budget Office appears poised to impose its budget cuts to NASA on Oct. 1.
Next steps: Congress must act quickly to preserve US leadership in space science. By Oct. 1, Congress should pass both a full-year appropriations bill, and a robust NASA authorization bill, that reaffirm the agency’s commitment to—and leadership in—space science. If a continuing resolution is necessary, Congress should include legislative language explicitly maintaining current levels of funding for pivotal NASA science missions and infrastructure.
If both Congress and the administration believe we are in a new space race, then we must maintain preeminence in space science, as well as human spaceflight. If the White House’s draconian cuts take effect, America would not only lose this race—the nation would effectively cease to compete at all, ceding the future of breakthrough discovery to Beijing and its partners across the globe.
Maxwell Zhu is a graduate student at the Jackson School of Global Affairs at Yale University.
Casey Dreier is the chief of space policy at The Planetary Society.
