China Hiding Its Military Objectives in Space, Says NASA Chief

Bill Nelson, the chief of US space agency NASA told the appropriations committee of the US House of Representatives in Washington that China is using civilian programmes to hide military objectives in space.

“China has made extraordinary strides [in space] especially in the last 10 years, but they are very, very secretive,” Bill Nelson said as he testified on the US space agency’s 2025 budget request.

“We believe that a lot of their so-called civilian space programme is a military programme. And I think, in effect, we are in a race,” he added.

Nelson also stressed that it was “incumbent on us” get to the moon, first as he warned: “my concern is if China got there first and suddenly said ‘ok this is our territory, you stay out’.”

The NASA chief said he hoped “the Chinese space programme would come to its senses and understand that civilian space is for peaceful uses,” but added: “We have not seen that demonstrated by China.”