The Race Is On: Artemis, China and Musk Turn the Moon Into the Next Strategic High Ground
New York NY (SPX) Feb 09, 2026
When Artemis II finally lights its engines and arcs away from Cape Canaveral, it will do more than send four astronauts on a ten-day loop around the Moon. It will fire the starting gun on a race that Washington and Beijing still insist does not exist and pull Elon Musk's SpaceX into the center of a contest that blends geopolitics, markets and myth. For two years, NASA has framed Artemis as
When Artemis II finally lights its engines and arcs away from Cape Canaveral, it will do more than send four astronauts on a ten-day loop around the Moon. It will fire the starting gun on a race that Washington and Beijing still insist does not exist and pull Elon Musk's SpaceX into the center of a contest that blends geopolitics, markets and myth. For two years, NASA has framed Artemis as