our joining us now from washington is keith cowing he's editor of nasa watch dot com peter good to have you on the show so what do you make of what the vice president says is there really a space race on the same magnitude of what we saw in the one nine hundred sixty s. . i wouldn't say it's the same magnitude of course to have a space race you have to perceive that you're in one in five people who are racing with you and in this case vice president prince pence suggested that china is looking to take the lead in exploring the moon of course japan has spent spacecraft there israel's about to land something there india is about to land something there we have space to insult on this many nations who are sending things around the moon the real issue is who can put in our case american footprints back in the mood or in the case of china chinese astronauts who's going to get there first and his being first to go back important or is it just important to go at that sort of work whether there is or rate is not a race to sort of under contention what would you say at nasa and what is the prior