We tend to think the US is safely ahead in the new Moon race, but China has already put its Lanyue lander through simulated lunar landing and takeoff tests — then fired its Mengzhou crew capsule away from a Long March 10A prototype at maximum aerodynamic pressure, in an integrated abort-and-recovery demo that NASA’s expendable Space Launch System was never designed to match.

We tend to think the US is safely ahead in the new Moon race, but China has already put its Lanyue lander through simulated lunar landing and takeoff tests — then fired its Mengzhou crew capsule away from a Long March 10A prototype at maximum aerodynamic pressure, in an integrated abort-and-recovery demo that NASA’s expendable Space Launch System was never designed to match.

It is comfortable to assume that the United States is safely ahead in the return to the Moon. China’s recent run of hardware tests is a reason not to be too comfortable. In the past year it has put a full-scale model of its Lanyue lunar lander through a simulated landing and takeoff, and it has fired its Mengzhou crew capsule clear of a rocket at the most punishing moment of ascent while also trying to recover the booster. Both are real mileston…