On the face of it, it looks like two of the world’s biggest powers are racing to get astronauts back on the lunar surface. China is aiming to land crew on the moon by 2036, while on the other side of the Pacific, US vice president, Mike Pence, has announced that the US will return there too. But declaring that a new space race is underway is probably the single quickest way to irritate space policy geeks – and for good reason.