New NASA administrator, citing China missions, calls for sustained support in Congress

Holding up a photo taken by China's new Mars lander, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson warned Congress on Wednesday that his agency faces increasingly stiff competition on the high frontier and that sustained funding for a new moon lander, infrastructure upgrades and other critical programs is vital for America's space program.

In his first congressional appearance since being confirmed by the Senate, Nelson, a former lawmaker who flew aboard a space shuttle in 1986, told a House appropriations subcommittee that China plans to send multiple landers to the south pole of the moon in the not-too-distant future, the same area NASA is targeting in its Artemis program. And the moon isn't the only arena where NASA faces competition from China's increasingly capable space program.