From April 1st to the 11th, NASA led a team of four record-breaking astronauts on a mission to the moon and back. It was the first crewed flight of the NASA-led Artemis program, as well as their first to set out beyond low Earth orbit ever since Apollo 17 back in 1972.

The plan, according to NASA and joint international partners, is to sustain a permanent human foothold at the lunar South Pole, a plan that is notably in direct competition with China’s Mengzhou project, which has similar goals. Both set a target for 2030.

As Artemis takes the spotlight, China and Russia are gazing out to the moon as well, with a planned framework that directly overlaps with the Artemis project called titled ‘The International Lunar Research Station.’ It is a proposed as a long-term multidisciplinary scientific research base with the ‘prospect of human presence.’ Situated at the lunar South Pole, the project aims to be completed by 2035. Thus a blueprint for the next space race is drafted.

While the politics of space usually remains hidden from mainstream media discourse, that doesn’t mean it’s not being planned behind closed doors.

Many of us may be excited by the possibility of exploring space, but for those who are aware that we are inheriting a world marred by environmental destruction, over-industrialization, late-stage capitalism and its opportunistic war-proffiteering  – we can’t help but feel concerned, if not saddened, by the inevitable weaponization of space.

Game of Thrones actor Jerome Flynn recently drew attention to the matter of space warfare, as he, alongside the grassroots campaign PARC Against DARC, are opposing a proposed US military space radar off the coast of Wales. Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability (DARC) plans to track orbit activity in order to “protect the UK from space warfare” in tandem with the UK Ministry of Defence. The plan would see a once idyllic coastal national park become yet another battleground for US militarism – already recognized as the world’s leading cause for institutional pollution. According to a PARC campaigner, a Chinese government-aligned source has dubbed the DARC project a “significant escalation”.

It isn’t just fly-bys, lofty prospects, and radars piercing orbit, however.

Enter Beresheet (Hebrew for “In the beginning”), a 2019 project launched by SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries. It was the first privately funded, Israeli-made robotic lunar lander.

The vessel carried an alleged “total and comprehensive archive of humanity” on board. It crash-landed two months later due to technical failures, but the capsule itself is said to remain intact, waiting to be rediscovered amongst grains of moon-sand and lunar rubble.

With Israel having launched a ‘carefully’ curated selection for its proclaimed library on the moon – an already imperious approach to an initiative you’d think should have included the rest of the world, rather than being conducted in secrecy – it makes you wonder why NASA is now scouting for alternatives to living on this earth.

The Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), a major aerospace manufacturer responsible for overseeing and developing the Iron Dome project as well as Beresheet, has over the years launched numerous satellites to space, one of them being the Earth Resource Observation Satellite (EROS). The IAI was recently privatized and acts much like a war-profiting company would, having reached a value of $20 billion. This financial surge was largely attributed to the global success of their missiles, particularly the Arrow 3 system which they developed in partnership with Boeing, securing a record $3.5 billion export agreement with Germany in late 2025.

Israeli involvement in the Artemis program is quite extensive, overseeing the team’s AstroRad anti-radiation vests, in partnership with Lockheed Martin — yes, that Lockheed Martin (LM), which, according to UN experts, is responsible for supplying F-35 fighter jets and other weapon systems used by Israel in its genocidal campaign in Gaza. The company has been accused of bribery, complicity in genocide and profiteering. Further reports highlight that LM weapons directly contributed to countless civilian casualties, destroying infrastructure and violating international law left, right, front and centre. The company is set to design further technology for future Artemis ventures (Artemis III-VIII).

It is not lost on me that while NASA works on Artemis alongside criminal organizations such as Lockheed Martin – giving their project an inherently eurocentric name – their counterpart seems to take on a more internationalist approach, which almost harkens back to the inclusionary attitudes of the USSR.

It is evident that Western powers view space as the new frontier for warfare; crowding the sky with satellites and establishing a foothold in zero gravity gives them a leg-up and an eye-above afterall.

Now don’t get me wrong, a project like Artemis II is undoubtedly exhilarating, as is any chance for further space exploration. However, it is imperative that we do not lose sight of the very politics that remain grounded here on Earth; a place that is actively being destroyed.