NASA Bars Chinese Nationals From Its Facilities, Programmes As US And China Race For Moon Dominance

US space agency NASA has barred Chinese nationals from its facilities and programmes amid rising tensions between the US and China in their race to send humans back to the Moon.

Bethany Stevens, NASA’s press secretary, confirmed that the agency had imposed new restrictions on Chinese nationals.

Stevens said the agency has taken “internal action pertaining to Chinese nationals, including restricting physical and cybersecurity access to our facilities, materials and network to ensure the security of our work”.

NASA has long avoided hiring Chinese citizens directly but has engaged them as contractors or student scientists if they held US visas without Beijing ties.

According to a Bloomberg report, several Chinese contributors of NASA said that they were locked out of their IT systems on 5 September and barred from in-person meetings.

The restrictions align with Washington’s hardening anti-China stance under Donald Trump, coinciding with an intensifying lunar mission rivalry.

The United States aims to land astronauts on the Moon by 2027 through its Artemis programme, seen as a successor to the Apollo missions of 1969–72.

However, the US lunar programme has suffered repeated delays and cost overruns.

Meanwhile, China has claimed that it is on track to put a person on the Moon by 2030.

In recent weeks, both nations unveiled plans to build a nuclear power station on the Moon by the mid-2030s to support long-term lunar bases.

NASA’s acting administrator Sean Duffy warned that whichever country achieves this first could enforce a “keep-out zone,” limiting the other’s presence under Artemis.

“The first country to do so [set up a base on moon] could potentially declare a ‘keep-out’ zone which would significantly inhibit the United States from establishing a planned Artemis presence if not there first,” Nasa’s acting administrator, Sean Duffy had said.

Duffy described the rivalry as a “second space race".

Duffy told Fox News that America’s return to the Moon would be permanent: “This time, when we plant our flag, we stay.”

He further alleged that China’s lunar goals were not peaceful, claiming they were “not going to the Moon with good intentions.”

“It’s a military operation for the Chinese. We can’t cede space. We’re the leaders in America,” he claimed.

He insisted that American dominance in space would ensure peace for the US and its international allies.

“We will get to the Moon under President Trump’s term. Our mission is Artemis. We will win the second space race. China wants to beat us there, but we won’t let them," he said.

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