US expected to launch new moon mission

NASA, in conjunction with SpaceX, is scheduled to launch a rocket to the moon today from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The last crewed lunar landing mission by NASA was the Apollo 17 mission, over 50 years ago during the height of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. In recent years, China has increased the size of its budget towards its Chinese Lunar Exploration Program becoming the first nation to touchdown on the far side of the moon in 2019. As part of the growing strategic competition with China and the national security imperative of space, the United States has allocated over $25 billion in 2023 to fund NASA and its Artemis program.

Onboard the SpaceX rocket are scientific hardware and instruments to further understand the lunar environment before NASA plans to send future human exploration missions. This mission is part of a growing U.S. investment and commitment to space exploration, especially as lunar space and cis-lunar orbits offer strategic access to intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. This new domain comes at a time when space law is still being defined, and as such, both the U.S. and China will likely continue to compete with one another as they seek to establish their version of a rules-based order in space.