This year could mark a space-race tipping point. Here what to know about China secretive program

(CNN) — A gravity-defying competition that brewed in the background of geopolitics for decades is now roaring to the forefront — with China demonstrating rapid advances in space technology and the United States ratcheting up rhetoric about a looming battle for control of the cosmos. In the past five years alone, China has launched Tiangong, a modern orbital laboratory to rival the aging, US-led International Space Station. China also retrieved the first-ever soil samples from the far side of the moon, a feat no other nation has duplicated. But it’s the fact that China plans to build a permanent settlement on the moon by 2040 that has prompted an urgent response from lawmakers on Capitol Hill. They’ve declared a new space race, and NASA is pledging to build a lunar outpost of America’s own. Adding to the tension is the fact that aerospace development in China is largely shrouded in secrecy, making it tough to say with absolute certainty which country is ahead in the contest. There are, however, a few clues. And this year could mark a dramatic turning point as the moon’s south pole becomes more of a focal point for both nations. The region is already the…