Maybe they have NASA beat, but SpaceX is leaps and bounds ahead of the chinese.
SpaceX is leaps and bounds ahead of the chinese.
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Artemis 3 depends on StarShip which is no where near ready, and if it was, it will take 15 refuelings to get to the moon. The refueling concept may be tried this year, but 1 success does not prove production quality. That will take many many successful refuelings to prove.
StarShip is just too heavy. It works fine to LEO and above, but needs refueling to achieve geosynchronous orbit with very large payloads. And is useless for Direct to Geosynchronous Orbit military missions.
The Chinese are using both the standard composite materials and the-everything-works-the-first-time approach. So they are lighter and more nimble than the Starship in its current form.
NASA is just a very very expensive joke with its Lunar orbital station concept.