NASA Follows Suit in Trump’s ‘Space Race’ Scenario

Sept. 17—In the overall hysteria about the new “space race” with China, NASA has barred from its facilities and networks Chinese nationals on U.S. visas. While NASA has restricted the employment of Chinese citizens generally, Chinese citizens without government affiliations have been hitherto able to contribute as contractors, graduate students, or university scientists.

On Sept. 10, NASA spokeswoman Bethany Stevens announced that “internal action” had been taken with regard to Chinese nationals, including “restricting physical and cybersecurity access to our facilities, materials, and network.” On Sept. 5, Chinese citizens lost physical and virtual access to NASA’s data systems.

The Chinese Embassy has protested the moves, calling them “discriminatory.” “China has consistently and firmly opposed the U.S.’s generalization of the concept of national security,” said Chinese Embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu. “Science and technology issues should not be politicized.”

Interim NASA Administrator Sean Duffy has said that beating China in the space race is “critically important.” Both China and the U.S. plan to send crewed missions to the Moon in the next five years, with China aiming to put astronauts there by 2030 and with the U.S. claiming they will make a landing in 2027; problems with the Artemis program have postponed a planned NASA return to the Moon originally scheduled for this year. Whether the present budget requirements will facilitate a landing at that time is still to be determined.