Breaking down the new space race: a return to the moon  March 19, 2026

 

Hello and happy Thursday, everyone. Happy Friday Eve. I'm Coy Wire.

 

This is CNN 10, where I tell you the what, letting you decide what to think. I have your 10 minutes of news for March 19th. Thank you for making us a part of your day.

 

Let's prepare for liftoff. We begin about 250 miles above the earth where a pair of astronauts aboard the International Space Station have successfully completed a pair of spacewalks. Spacewalks or extravehicular activities allow astronauts to conduct experiments, perform repairs, or test new equipment outside the ISS.

 

extravehicular [ˌɛkstrəviˈhɪkjulər] adj. 飞行器外的 (宇宙飞船外的)

 

Astronauts Jessica Meir and Chris Williams ventured outside for roughly six and a half hours Wednesday morning to help install new rollout solar arrays, which will augment the aging ISS arrays by providing a significant boost to the existing power system.

 

rollout [ˈrolˌaʊt] n. 首次展示

augment [ɔɡ'ment] v. 增加

 

It was Williams' first spacewalk, Meir's fourth, and the 278th time any astronauts have ventured outside the ISS since its launch in 1998.

 

Ms. Meir said they had to practice quite a bit inside the ISS because they lose a lot of their dexterity once inside the pressurized spacesuits.

 

dexterity [dɛk'stɛrətɪ] n. 灵巧；机敏；熟练

 

Now every spacewalk and every opportunity to leave Earth's atmosphere inches the U.S. closer toward its Artemis IV mission, humanity's return to the lunar surface.

 

inch [ɪntʃ] v. 慢慢移动

 

The U.S. was the first nation to land astronauts on the moon in 1969. The state-run space program in China is developing impressive technology that could get their astronauts back to the moon before NASA.

 

Our Jackie Wattles has more on why this has become so competitive between the two nations.

 

Liftoff of Artemis I. We rise together. NASA officials and U.S. politicians are warning that we are in a new space race.

 

liftoff ['lɪftˌɔf] n.（火箭等）发射；起飞

 

We are in a great competition with a rival that has the will and the means to challenge American exceptionalism across multiple domains, including in the high ground of space.

 

exceptionalism [ɪkˈsɛpʃənəlɪzəm] n. 独特性

 

It's the U.S. and its billionaires against China to see who can return humans to the moon.

 

Because if we fall behind, if we make a mistake, we may never catch up.

 

The United States has already achieved the only moon landings, but this time around it's quite possible China will get there first.

 

It is highly unlikely that we will land on the moon before China.

 

The U.S. is about to launch a mission around the moon called Artemis II, but NASA doesn't have all the tools it needs to land on the lunar surface just yet, and that's a problem for some on Capitol Hill.

 

The United States must remain the unquestioned leader in space exploration.

 

unquestioned [ʌn'kwɛstʃənd] adj. 无可争议的

 

China's space program has made significant progress in recent years. The country says it's aiming to land astronauts on the moon by 2030, and the country usually hits its deadlines.

 

NASA's goal here is not to repeat the flags and footprints missions of the Apollo era, but to develop the technology so that people can live and work on the moon.

 

But that of course requires funding space exploration in the long term. These missions are far more complex than just sending humans to low earth orbit as we did with the space shuttle and with SpaceX's Crew Dragon now, and it remains to be seen whether America will maintain the political and economic will that it takes to foot the bill.

 

foot the bill 买单; 付账

 

We certainly haven't funded NASA as if this has been a race, and so we don't want to put our space agency in the position of suddenly being framed as losing when we haven't really given them the resources necessary even to truly compete if it truly is a time-sensitive situation.

 

time-sensitive 有时间限制的

 

It's important to note that China and the U.S. have very different playbooks. The U.S. is partnering with private industry, including SpaceX and Blue Origin, and China is using a state-run program, and they're putting significant resources behind it.

 

The moon is a large place, but the number of locations that have the combination of water ice, sunlight, and other aspects that we need are actually relatively limited, and we could lose those to the Chinese if we don't move quickly.

 

But while the best campsites in space may be worth scouting, there could be a lot more options than we realize.

 

They're setting up the flag now.

 

The U.S. won the race to the moon more than 50 years ago. Beautiful, just beautiful. We went to the moon.

 

You can't undo that. We need to be confident in our own plan, stay focused. Absolutely welcome trying to move as fast as possible, but it's not the end of the world, figuratively or literally, if China gets there first.

 

undo [ʌn'du] v. 废除; 取消

figuratively [ˈfɪgərətɪvlɪ] adv. 比喻地

 

Did any of you see or hear the massive meteor that streaked through the skies over Ohio and Pennsylvania Tuesday morning?

 

streak [strik] v. 疾驰; 高速飞行

 

Weighing roughly 14,000 pounds, the fireball was moving so fast it triggered a sonic boom heard from Ohio to Kentucky.

 

sonic boom 音爆

 

NASA says the six-foot space rock was traveling 40,000 miles per hour when it entered Earth's atmosphere over Lake Erie.

 

Some residents thought there was an earthquake or an explosion, but it was this sonic boom, which occurs when an object travels through the air faster than the speed of sound, approximately 750 miles per hour.

 

It broke apart over Medina, Ohio, releasing a burst of energy equal to about 250 tons of TNT. The boom was heard up to 600 miles away. Scientists call it a bolide, which is a meteor that explodes midair.

 

bolide [bɔ'laɪd] n. 火流星

 

Experts say they actually happen all the time, just rarely in the daylight and over such populated areas.

 

daylight ['delaɪt] n. 白昼；黎明

 

Now to an update on the ongoing energy crisis in Cuba. Parts of the island are recovering from a nationwide blackout that lasted more than 24 hours following a complete collapse of the country's electrical grid.

 

These blackouts have intensified lately due to the U.S. oil blockade, which has effectively cut off the island's main fuel supply. Our Patrick Oppmann is on the ground in the capital of Havana with an update.

 

After more than 24 hours of an island-wide blackout, power is coming back to many parts of Havana.

 

Still, there are other parts of the city, many parts of the island that are still without any electricity. And the underlying causes of this blackout, an aging electrical system that is collapsing, an oil blockade on the part of the Trump administration on this island, those are still there. The power could go out again at any point.

 

That's really the concern here. And so the Cuban government says they are negotiating with the United States. They are trying to work out some kind of deal.

 

But we've heard Donald Trump say that he plans on taking Cuba, essentially being the one to call the shots here. And Secretary of State Marco Rubio say that, in his opinion, the officials in charge of this island are unable to resolve the problems that they have here and that they need to leave.

 

So while talks are going on, it is clear that the Cuban government is being pushed to do much more than up until now they have been willing to do.

 

And very soon officials here could be facing an ultimatum from the U.S.

 

ultimatum [ˌʌltə'metəm] n. 最后通牒

 

Pop quiz hot shot.What did the earliest vending machine dispense?

 

dispense [dɪˈspɛns] v. 执行; 施与; 给予

 

Toys, holy water, bread or bird seed?

 

If you said holy water, bless your heart. The earliest known vending machine was invented in ancient Greece at a temple.

 

It's credited to the Greek engineer Hero of Alexandria. His device worked by accepting a coin, which triggered a mechanism releasing small amounts of holy water into the hands of worshipers.

 

If you've ever been to Japan, you know they have arguably the coolest vending machines on the planet.

 

I've been there a handful of times and you can get everything from sushi to gyoza, fried chicken.

 

gyoza [ɡiˈozə] n. 日式煎餃

 

The machines are iconic and big business, but some beverage companies are saying they're going to start taking their vending machines off the streets. Our Hanako Montgomery has more on the why.

 

Japan's iconic vending machines are in big trouble. Major beverage companies are reporting hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. And this company, Dydo, says it's removing 20,000 of them because they're no longer profitable.

 

And it comes down to two reasons. First, labor shortages. There are millions of these machines across Japan and they need constant restocking and maintenance, but there aren't enough workers to keep them running.

 

Second, price hikes. Rising costs for raw materials mean drinks inside these machines are getting more expensive. And consumers are noticing some drinks now cost nearly 50% more than what they did before the pandemic.

 

So people are instead heading here to convenience stores or drugstores where the exact same drink can be sold cheaper.

 

Today's story, getting a 10 out of 10, a group of students diving into the deep end of innovation and making waves in STEM. At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, dozens of student teams put their skills to the test, engineering remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs, designed to tackle challenges underwater.

 

Each robot is built to navigate obstacles, glide through rings, and complete hands-on missions against the clock.

 

hands-on 現成的

against the clock 抢时间，争分夺秒

 

Top teams advanced to an international competition in Maryland this June, where they'll not only test their robots, but the real-world skills they've built along the way.

 

Perseverance is usually one of the big things, and that's hard to just teach every day in a class.

 

For many competitors, this is just the beginning, with dreams of engineering careers already in motion.

 

I plan to go to MIT to do aerospace engineering. And I think here I learned lots of working together as a team, which I'll do in engineering, in any engineering field.

 

From trial and error to teamwork and innovation, these students are charting a course toward their future in STEM.

 

That is all about we have time for today. But first, we want to show some love to the folks who make this the best 10 Minutes in News.

 

We have a shout out to Ms. Lau at the Frobel Bilingual School in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. Rise up, friends, and thank you for subscribing and commenting on our CNN10 YouTube channel. I'm also sending some love to Mr. Lincoln and Friends at Melba High School in Melba, Idaho.

 

I do believe a pizza party may be in order. You've stolen a pizza, our hearts. Make it an awesome day, everyone.

 

I'm Coy Wire, and we are CNN10.