The head of NASA warns that China could claim the moon as one of its territories

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has warned that China may claim the Moon as one of its territories.

In an interview with PoliticoThe NASA chief said he and many members of the space agency are increasingly concerned about China’s plans when they go to the moon.

“It is a fact: we are in a space race. And it is true that we must be careful that they do not get a place on the moon under the pretext of scientific research. It is not excluded that they say: “Stay away, we are here, it is our land,” he stated in the interview.

Bill Nelson cites the communist country’s military expansion into the South China Sea as an example.

“If you have any doubts, see what they did with the Spratly Islands,” says the NASA administrator.

The US and Chinese space programs are working hard to get to the moon within the next few years.

In November, NASA flew the Orion spacecraft around the moon as part of the Artemis 1 mission.

The space agency plans to send astronauts to the lunar surface by 2025.

China, for its part, completed construction of the new Tiangong space station and sent three astronauts there in November.

The country plans to send three missions to the moon in the coming decades. China claims to have discovered a new lunar mineral that can be used as an energy source.