The former NASA chief has said that the United States has been lagged behind due to problems with the Starship Elon Musk missile in the space race with China.
The US Space Agency plans to use Starship as part of its Artemis program to return astronauts to the moon, but the next -generation Spacex missile has a series of delays that have pushed the mission table.
Former NASA chief Jim Cutin said on Wednesday that the choice of NASA launch cars means that China is likely to deliver the human crew to the lunar level.
“Our complex architecture needs tens or more launch in a short period of time, relies on highly challenging technologies that have not yet been developed like refueling in the cryogenic space and still need human rankings,” he told the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
“Unless something changes, it is very unlikely that the US will beat China’s anticipated timetable to the moon level.”
Spacex completed the tenth Starship test flight last week and successfully launched both of the largest missiles ever built and returned to the ground.
It was the first time in 2025 when Spacex successfully performed a Starship flight test after three intense efforts early in the year.
Another missile was destroyed in June following a massive explosion during ground experiments.
Mr Musk has claimed that the missile will be ready for the first unexpected missions to Mars in 2026, which had previously predicted in 2017 that it would reach the Red Planet by 2022.
In 2021, Spacex provided NASA’s multi -billion dollar contract to use Starship to use the first human beings on the moon in more than 50 years.
The contract was awarded when NASA had no permanent chief, only CEO Steve Jorchic.
“I do not know how this happens, but the biggest decision in NASA’s history, at least since I paid attention, happens in the absence of a NASA manager,” said Bridensstine during the testimony of Wednesday.
“This is the architecture that no NASA manager I am aware of if they had a choice.”
NASA’s Artemis mission to send astronauts to the lunar level was initially planned for December 2025, but since then, it has been returned to September 2026 as the first delay in the Starship test.
Last month, China completed its first Lunar Lander experiment, hoping to put the first Chinese before 2030.
