WE'VE BEEN MOONSTRUCK

China's ambition to put a man on the Moon by 2030 has seen it rocket ahead of Britain and America in the new race to the stars. And with space tipped as a future battleground, experts fear our national security could be heading straight into a black hole

- Peter Sheridan in Los Angeles

IN SPACE nobody can hear you scream. But here on Earth, legions of voices are being raised in anguish as China takes a disturbing lead in the second space race to put astronauts back on the Moon and seize its prizes.

Britain and Europe are unlikely to put anyone on the lunar surface for years, and even America has unexpectedly fallen behind China in the challenge that could determine the future security of our planet.

China is due to put “taikonauts” — their version of astronauts — on the Moon by 2030, with plans for a lunar base powered by a nuclear reactor. The burgeoning superpower, which has massively ramped up its military in recent years, could be in a position to dominate space from its lunar stronghold.

All Britain can do is stare at the Moon and wish on a shooting star.

It has been 53 years since America put the last man on the Moon.

The first space race was ignited in 1961 when president John F Kennedy called on the US to put a man on the Moon before Russia — and it succeeded with Apollo 11 in 1969. But that effort was as much about international prestige and Cold War bragging rights as it was about scientific development.

Today’s second space race, with the US facing off against China, is more about establishing a strategic lunar beachhead: a fortification that could control the future lunar-Earth space economy, plus global spy satellite operations and the exploitation of lunar resources.

But a US Senate hearing this month met with dire warnings that China is leaping ahead of its global rivals.

“It is highly unlikely that we will land on the Moon before China,” cautioned former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine. “That puts the nation at risk.”

And it’s not just the US in jeopardy.

Britain’s lunar ambitions are reliant on the European Space Agency, which is itself looking to ride on the coattails of NASA.