Sept. 11 (UPI) -- NASA has banned Chinese citizens with valid U.S. visas from working on its space programs at its facilities.
NASA said that Chinese nationals would be barred from using its "facilities, materials and networks to ensure the security of our work," after Chinese workers contributing to research were locked out of their IT systems and prevented from attending in-person meetings on Sept. 5.
A NASA press secretary, Bethany Stevens, confirmed that NASA had taken "internal action pertaining to Chinese nationals -- including restricting physical and cybersecurity access to our facilities."
Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy said the United States and China are currently engaged in "a second space race."
"The Chinese want to get back to the moon before us. That's not going to happen," he said.
