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WASHINGTON, Aug 8 The United States does not consider Russia a participant in the new space race, only Washington and Beijing are participating in it, NASA chief Bill Nelson said Tuesday.
“I don’t think many people will now say that Russia is capable of landing astronauts on the moon in the timeframe that we and possibly China are talking about, so I think that the space race is between us and China,” Nelson said on press briefing on NASA's preparations for a manned flight to the Moon's orbit as part of the Artemis-2 mission.
Speaking of rivalry with China regarding lunar exploration, the head of NASA said that «quite naturally, would not want China to get to the South Pole (Moon — ed.) first.»
Nelson at the same time wished success for the mission of the Russian automatic station Luna-25, which is scheduled to be launched in the coming days. «We wish them all the best,» the head of NASA said, stressing that Russia and the United States have been cooperating in space since 1975 and are successfully cooperating on the International Space Station program.
The United States, under the administration of Donald Trump, announced the start of the Artemis lunar program, which is considered a milestone in future flights to Mars. Flights to the Moon will be carried out on the Orion spacecraft, which puts the SLS launch vehicle into orbit. It was originally planned that the astronauts would return to the lunar surface as early as 2024, but with the advent of the Joseph Biden administration, the dates were adjusted to 2025. The first mission «Artemis-1» — an unmanned flight to orbit the Moon, took place in November 2022, it is planned that a similar manned orbital flight «Artemis-2» should take place at the end of 2024. The landing of astronauts on the Moon with the Artemis-3 mission is now announced for 2025, but, as NASA management admitted, it may be delayed until 2026.