Special to CosmicTribune.com, March 12, 2026

Geostrategy-Direct

By Richard Fisher

On April 15, 2010, President Barak Obama traveled to Kennedy Space Center to announce his cancellation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Constellation Moon program that was started in January 2004 by his predecessor, George W. Bush.

In his speech Obama stated: “We’re no longer racing against an adversary. We’re no longer competing to achieve a singular goal like reaching the Moon. In fact, what was once a global competition has long since become a global collaboration.”

Well, Obama’s White House Science Advisor John Holdren was in attendance, who led an effort to advance U.S. space cooperation with China, to include allowing Chinese astronauts on the International Space Station.

But such an opening to human rights-abusing and espionage-prone China inspired former Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA) to craft legislation barring such NASA cooperation with China without Congressional approval (The Wolf Amendment).

Donald Trump revived the U.S. Moon program during his first term in December 2017, which developed into the current Artemis Program in October 2020, now joined by 61 countries.

Ironies now abound from Obama’s hubris:

The United States is today in a vital race with China to strategically populate the Moon to ensure strategic-military access — that will determine military dominance on Earth; Obama effectively gave China a 7-year head start; and it now turns out that the Constellation Moon Program that Obama cancelled may inspire the first lunar landing site for China.

On March 9, the journal Nature Astronomy published an article written by Chinese and German lunar scientists titled “Geology of Rimae Bode region as priority site candidate for China’s first crewed lunar mission.”

This article is largely about the lunar resource and geological advantages of the Rimae Bode region of the Moon and the article states:

“Rimae Bode lies in an easily accessible, low-latitude, nearside location with generally flat, traversable terrain. Both the high scientific value and the favourable landing and exploration conditions make the Rimae Bode region a candidate for missions like the NASA Constellation programme and China’s first crewed lunar mission.”

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