China Wants To Establish A Base On The Moon, Space Program Expert Says

China completed the first-ever landing on the “dark” side of the moon this week. It was a technical achievement and a coup for the country’s ambitions to outshine the U.S. space program.

Namrata Goswami, an expert on China’s space program, tells Here & Now‘s Peter O’Dowd that its Chang’e-4 lunar probe has important implications for the future of space.

“It’s a very, very symbolically and technologically significant development, and it shows to the world that China’s space program has arrived and can do original feats on its own,” says Goswami (@namygoswami), who’s working on a book about “expansionism, territoriality and resource nationalism” in space.

China’s long-term goal