By Zhang Ziyi

CLTC-CONAE-NEUQUEN Deep Space Station in Argentina's Neuquén province

Administrator of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Bill Nelson visited Argentina on July 27 local time. At the press conference held in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, he listed the achievements of China's exploration of the Moon and Mars, claiming that the US is in a "space race" with China. This Cold War vocabulary has now been brought to Argentina, a hot spot for international space cooperation, by Nelson.

This is not the first time that senior US officials to hype up space issues in Argentina. In March 2022, Commander of US Southern Command General Laura J. Richardson directly named the deep space station located in Neuquén province, Argentina, which is cooperatively operated by this country and China, and slandered it as a military facility during her visit to Argentina. Some analysts believe that an important intention of Nelson's clamor for the so-called "space race" is to provoke and undermine China-Argentina space cooperation.

The Neuquén deep space station, officially put into service in 2017, is the first of its kind launched overseas for China. It is designed for peaceful exploration and exploitation of outer space for the two countries and is also open to the international community.

At present, many national science and technology institutions including those from the US have conducted scientific research by resorting to this deep space station. And diplomats from the US, Europe and other countries in Argentina have also paid field visits to this station to take a view of its civilian nature.

However, China and Argentina have always carried out space cooperation against the odds of US rumor-mongering and provocative acts, citing "concerns" about the establishment of the deep space station by China in Argentina and accusing the deep space station of military purpose, etc. For its part, Argentine responded unequivocally.

In 2019, TVP, Argentina's national television broadcaster, sent reporters to the station and filmed a documentary to record the scientists' daily work during their time spent there. The reporters participating in the filming felt deeply that with the Neuquén deep space station, Argentina is well-positioned to conduct space researches that were previously unreachable.

In March 2022, Minister of Argentine's Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation Daniel Filmus pointed out that the Neuquén deep space station is a facility for them to carry out space exploration and satellite cooperation with China, just like what they do with Europe. The European Space Agency (ESA) set up a deep space station in Argentina as early as in 2012, which is about 480 kilometers away from the one China and Argentina established.

In March 2023, Argentina's Ambassador to Washington Jorge Argüello, in a letter to Member of the US House from the Republican Party Maria Elvira Salazar, pointed out that Argentina does not have the military infrastructure or military presence of extraterritorial countries, which firmly refuted the latter's stigmatization of the Neuquén deep space station.

Nelson's hype particularly represents the pervasive nature of US hegemony. In 2018, then-Vice US President Michael R. Pence declared that the US will dominate space as it does for the Earth. The 2020 Space Defense Strategy  announced by the US Department of Defense (DoD) declared that space is a unique domain of combat, with a space force in the planning, fully demonstrating the hegemonic propensity of "America first". With the success of several Chinese space missions in recent years, the Cold War vocabulary "space race" has been frequently cited by leaders of the NASA.

At a US congressional hearing in April 2023, Nelson said that "If you let China get there first, what's to stop them from saying, 'We're here, this is our area, you stay out.'" He also warned that time is running out for the US, urging Congress to support the proposal to increase the space budget. The US Space Force's budget request in 2024 reaches $30 billion, an increase of 15%, which achieves the pinnacle in the record of this military service.

As NASA administrator, Nelson is not possibly unaware of the "dark history" of the US space program.

Space is the common home of mankind rather than the arena of hegemony. Some in the US cannot live in the 21st century with outdated thinking from the past. The same old playbook of the Cold War should not and will not be used.

Editor's note: Originally published on chinanews.com, this article is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information and opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.