The successful Artemis II trip around the Moon was a historic achievement – the first crewed lunar fly-by in more than 50 years, and the greatest distance yet travelled by humans from our “pale blue dot”.

The mission was marked by engineering, scientific and technical feats, by the astronauts and team at NASA and beyond, who got the crew there and back safely.

With the technical achievement came symbolic firsts, too. The first woman and the first person of colour to orbit the Moon. As astronaut Victor Glover put it, “people need to be able to see themselves in the things that they dream about”.

Artemis II deserves celebration. But the celebration should not crowd out political scrutiny.

Power and resources on the Moon

Artemis II is one mission in a broader US program to start establishing a permanent Moon base by 2030.

This is about more than exploration. As US President Donald Trump has said, it is about asserting “American space superiority”, establishing a “sustained American presence” and developing a lunar economy. The US colonial thinking of a “manifest destiny to the stars” returns.

The bigger picture is that the US sees itself in a “space race” with what NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has called its “geopolitical adversary”, China.

One point of conflict........

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