There are going to be a lot of shocked folks around here when China places human settlements on the moon while NASA and Musk are busy making excuses.
We are outstanding at propaganda—unfortunately a lot of folks around here are falling for it.
Musk is still tied at the hip to NASA—dead weight that is going be a major obstacle for Musk.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/03/investing-in-space-nasa-and-spacex-need-each-other.html
This already happened when both China and Russia launched hypersonic missiles that can circle the world, or are even now being used in battle. Meanwhile Lockheed just cancelled their USAF program and Raytheon is still in development on theirs.
We are indeed excellent at propaganda, and lying to ourselves. As someone on FR said - we're becoming like the Confederacy - falling behind in power, but full of visions of our own righteousness.
Oh you know that China has a rocket that goes to the moon and lands people on it?
Because Elon just built one of those.
China can talk all it wants, a hypersonic missile and a moon landing are completely different things.