For decades, Americans have been propagandized into the position that they alone are exceptional. Thus, anyone that challenges that belief becomes the enemy. It's gotten so bad, that "China might get there first" is the only way to get American politicians to actually stick to a target for more than 4 years.

Depends on your point of view. But I imagine some people in the US would not be happy to lose that race. The reason it was a race in the sixties is because they definitely didn't want the Russians to get there first.

China isn't looking at it just for bragging rights, but as a step towards the first moon base. Some see it as a race for the frontier and territorial claims.

Not first. Seventh.

The successful manned moon landings so far:

1. United States of America

2. United States of America

3. United States of America

4. United States of America

5. United States of America

6. United States of America

Now we're watching a riveting race for 7th place.

Sure. It’s not easy to do. I think odds favor China right now, but it’s far from a done deal. Anything from geopolitics to internal politics to technical hurdles could interfere (ditto with the US and everyone else of course).

They have a pretty concrete moon program. That would be one of the things they are focusing on.

Apollo 1. Three astronauts died.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_1

Not to mention there being a lot of launch failures pre and during the Apollo era, including pad explosions (there are nice compilations on youtube). But that was not really that much of an issue, as this was expected and there were dozens of pads built for these launches, so the testing cadence was not affected.

There was no fatal launch failure for Apollo & pad explosion would be a problem with just 2 pads available.

There were a couple Saturn V stage explosions during testing but again - those damaged test stands, not the pad.

It makes some sense. If they're not going to be able to launch for a year because the pad is being rebuilt anyway, projects that were going to take a year may as well go to the front burner.

> I know it's not, but darned if that doesn't sound like "it exploded real big, so build a bigger one!"

To me it sounds like "alright, it's silly to waste time and energy on duplicate effort. Let's focus on getting this one right instead."

I believe that's the inevitable outcome.

The Chinese will build a moon base, as a sign from the Chinese government to the Chinese people that China is capable of cutting-edge engineering and science (notably a demonstration to their own citizens - when was the last time you heard about the Chinese space stations outside China?).

America seems a bit shaky in their determination to actually build a moon base, though having Jared Isaacman as administrator gives hope. But regardless of whether America is currently on track, a successful Chinese moon base won't stay without answer

The South Pole of the moon will end up one giant mega city due to it's constant sunlight. It will be a lot easier to get there once there is even one landing strip.

I will give you that. I will be more than happy to see both reach there in mutual success. I do fear the blow back of the more tribalistic folks that will see it as a threat rather than success.