Bill Nelson, head of NASA, assured that China continues to expand its capabilities in space and is concealing a military space program under the guise of a civilian program.
Nelson explained that the country has made extraordinary progress in the last 10 years, but it is being kept very secret. Nelson's statements were given before a House of Representatives congressional expenditure committee.
"We believe that a lot of their so-called civilian space program is a military program," he said in statements collected by AFP.
Nelson says he hopes that China, the Chinese Space Program, will "come to its senses and understand that civilian space is for peaceful uses." But, he says, "We have not seen that demonstrated by China," he added.
Furthermore, Nelson indicated that the United States is in a race with Beijing. For this reason, he insisted that the U.S. must land on the moon before the Chinese. "My concern is if China got there first and suddenly said 'ok this is our territory, you stay out.'"
When asked by legislators about the consequences of losing ground in space to China, Nelson pointed out that this is a scenario that should not occur.
"We've got to be realistic that China is throwing a lot of money at [its space program] ... I think that we just better not let down our guard," he said.
