Nasa chief warns moon’s south pole may become ‘another South China Sea’

Nasa administrator Bill Nelson has suggested China might occupy the moon’s south pole if its astronauts get there first, using the dispute over the Spratly Islands to back his claim of a new space race.

“You see the actions of the Chinese government on Earth. They go out and claim some international islands in the South China Sea as theirs, and build military runways on them,” he said at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on Tuesday.