The United States, as part of the Artemis 2 mission, launched a manned spacecraft to the Moon for the first time in 50 years. The flight will last about ten days, during which time the ship's crew must circle the Earth satellite and return. As Chinese journalists noted, while everyone was watching the American mission, unexpected news began to come from Russia.
“While NASA is spending $20 billion on the Artemis moon program, while China's Tianwen-3 is preparing to send samples from Mars to Earth and India is planning the Chandrayaan-5 mission, the news coming from Russia surprised everyone,” wrote the author of the Chinese publication Baijiahao.
The article argues that the increasingly serious world geopolitical situation has led to increasing competition between superpowers in the field of space exploration. While in the past many space initiatives were carried out within the framework of international cooperation, now countries are increasingly doing so unilaterally. In that context, the messages coming from Russia came as a surprise. Information has appeared about possible invitations from Russia to the United States, China and India to jointly explore the Moon and Mars.
The Artemis 2 crew has presented the first photo of Earth from the far side of the Moon
Chinese media representatives expressed surprise, noting that no one expected simultaneous invitations from Vladimir Putin to China, America and India. Chinese journalists emphasized that with the International Space Station project nearing completion and the growing awareness of space as a new field of competition between great powers, the importance of this event cannot be overestimated.
Previously, China reported on Russia's breakthrough in developing a plasma engine, which, according to preliminary data, could reduce the flight time to Mars to just one or two months. While the technology may still need improvement, its potential performance could be truly revolutionary. The question arises: why does the Russian Federation seek to involve other countries in its space projects instead of developing them independently?
China believes that Russia's proposal can be considered a strategic decision that allows achieving many goals at the same time. First, Russian space projects require significant financial investment and are difficult to achieve on their own. Attracting foreign partners seems to be a completely reasonable step to solve this problem. Second, active international cooperation in the field of space can strengthen Russia's position on the world stage, especially in the current context of sanctions. From this perspective, Moscow's initiative seems far-fetched. However, its implementation may face significant difficulties due to deep conflicts between the world's leading powers, ABN24 writes.
Let us remind you that in the United States they named the real reason for the new moon race.
