Interesting that China plans to put a "lunar landing stack" into lunar orbit with a second rocket. So presumably, the descent stage will not be reusable. I wonder if the ascent stage will be reusable. That would probably require in-space refueling, which does not seem to be part of their plan.
That contrasts with the U.S. plan, which is betting on SpaceX being able to refuel in space and set up a more reusable process for supporting a lunar habitat.
But the last paragraph about U.S. plans, especially the last sentence, "If all goes according to plan, that will happen with the Artemis 3 mission in late 2026," seems strained considering how slowly that program has been progressing.
There is increasing media reporting of people expecting "Artemis" to be cancelled, too.
But, Artemis is a multinational program, not just the NASA SLS rocket. Why not just cancel the SLS on the basis that SpaceX will be able to do the same things better and with less government expense? Of course, we would want to make sure that is true, first.
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