The United States has taken the lead over China in the race for crewed lunar landings by launching the first phase of its deep-space human exploration program. The two countries are targeting moon landings in 2028 and 2030 respectively, with the U.S. envisioning an eventual push to Mars building on a successful lunar landing.
NASA's Artemis 2 launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on the morning of July 2 Korea time, according to Reuters and other major wire services. Carrying four astronauts toward the Moon, Artemis 2 will reach its farthest point from Earth on its sixth day of flight, passing within 6,400 kilometers of the lunar surface. The mission will not land on the Moon but will swing around the far side before returning to Earth.
The Artemis 2 mission serves as a comprehensive test flight to verify humanity's capability for crewed deep-space travel beyond Earth's magnetic field toward the Moon and Mars. If this mission is a rehearsal for a lunar landing, the Artemis 3 mission is the full-scale crewed exploration project that will actually land astronauts on the lunar surface in 2028.
NASA conducted six crewed lunar expeditions between 1969 and 1972 through the Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17 missions, but then stopped. Plans to return to the Moon were drawn up during the Barack Obama administration and pursued in earnest under the first Donald Trump administration. At the time, the U.S. declared a resumption of crewed lunar exploration — spurred by China's rising space ambitions — and launched the Artemis program.
U.S. plans extend to building the Lunar Gateway, an orbital station around the Moon, and constructing a lunar base. The primary goal is to secure the capability for long-duration stays and operations on the Moon. This includes developing long-term survival technologies and studying the effects of radiation and low-gravity environments on the human body.
While U.S. space policy focuses on the Moon in the short term, its long-term target is Mars. The plan is to leverage the infrastructure and technology established on the Moon directly for Mars exploration. Experts estimate that Mars — the planet in the solar system with the environment most similar to Earth's — is likely rich in mineral resources including rare earth elements and helium-3, key materials for advanced industries such as semiconductors and batteries.
China has also set a goal of landing a Chinese national on the Moon by 2030. It began its lunar exploration project "Chang'e," named after the Chinese moon goddess, in 2004. China launched the uncrewed probe Chang'e-1 in 2007 and sent Chang'e-3 to the near side of the Moon in 2013. In 2018, Chang'e-4 became the first spacecraft in the world to land on the far side of the Moon. In 2024, Chang'e-6 brought soil samples from the far side back to Earth. This year, China plans to become the first country to confirm the existence of water on the Moon through water and ice exploration at the lunar south pole.
Fox News cited expert opinion explaining that "China would celebrate a deep-space exploration victory simply by replicating a human lunar landing, and could assert ownership claims over polar ice on the Moon." Ice-form water at the lunar poles is a valuable resource that could be used for drinking water, equipment cooling, and oxygen production at a future lunar base.
American companies are also aggressively pursuing space development. SpaceX, founded in 2002 by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, is regarded as the most advanced space company in the world. SpaceX's orbital-class rocket Falcon 9 successfully recovered its first-stage booster in December 2015, then launched a satellite in March 2017, ushering in the world's first era of reusable rockets.
An IPO targeting the world's largest corporate valuation is also proceeding on schedule. Bloomberg reported the same day, citing sources, that SpaceX had confidentially filed a preliminary registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). SpaceX aims to raise up to $75 billion through the listing at a valuation of $1.75 trillion (approximately 2,648 trillion won).
Blue Origin, founded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is considered SpaceX's main rival. Its reusable suborbital rocket New Shepard had completed 38 flights as of January this year. The vehicle can hover for 11 minutes at the Kármán line — the boundary of space at an altitude of 100 kilometers. A total of 92 people have traveled to space and returned aboard New Shepard. In November last year, Blue Origin's Mars-capable uncrewed rocket New Glenn successfully launched a NASA Mars probe and recovered its booster.
