India, May 28 -- NASA administrator Jared Isaacman's announcement this week that the agency will begin building a permanent moon base - with near-monthly robotic landings from 2027 and astronauts potentially living on the lunar surface by the early 2030s - marks the most concrete articulation yet of American lunar ambitions. It also makes the shape of the new space race unmistakable.

China is moving on a parallel track. Its crewed lunar landing is targeted before 2030, with a permanent base - partnered with Russia - planned for 2035. In its hardware pipeline are lander trials scheduled for 2027-28 and an uncrewed mission for 2028-29. Beijing's chief lunar scientist has said the public timeline is deliberately conservative.

An analogy wi...