US President Donald Trump is determined to beat China to the moon — and then to Mars. Yet if anyone in Beijing were truly anxious about America’s progress, they might be reassured by the events of recent days.
The public spat between Elon Musk, whose SpaceX business is Nasa’s most important contractor, and Sean Duffy, US transport secretary and acting head of the space agency, may look like a clash of egos. In reality, it is merely the latest symptom of the disarray engulfing Nasa and its ambitions.
For the past nine months, the US space agency has been operating without a permanent leader. It has been struggling to cope with thousands of departures forced by Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, a proposal for dramatic cuts to its science budget and the uncertain future of many programmes on which international partnerships rely.