And liftoff.
Russia, the U.S., China, Canada, Japan, Europe, and India.
These are just some of the places boosting their presence in space right now.
We're in an important transitional period for geopolitics in space.
New powers are starting to appear, so the next few years are going to be really important
to see what geopolitical factors start looking like in space.
So, welcome to a short course on the modern space age from Axios experts.
First up: the geopolitics of space today.
Russia and the U.S. have dominated geopolitics in space since the Cold War.
NASA put a chimpanzee in space in 1961.
The Soviet Union put a man in orbit that same year.
And the U.S. and Russia have cooperated on the International Space Station since 1998.
The International Space Station has been sort of the primary geopolitical hub in space
for over the last 20 years at this point.
Russia needs the U.S. to work the Space Station
and the U.S. needs Russia to work the Space Station.
This doesn't mean that the two countries have always gotten along --
they've just had to work together in orbit.
But the geopolitics of space are changing.
The International Space Station is going to come to an end.
The station's parts simply won't really function anymore, and it will need to be retired,
which means that our you know productive geopolitical hub
in orbit is going to go away, effectively.
Right now it isn't super clear when the Space Station will end.
Congress has authorized it through 2024, but most people believe
that it will be maintained until at least 2028.
Russia is kind of the wild card here.
We're not totally sure whether they will continue maintenance of the Space Station,
and everybody kind of needs to be in on it in order to keep the station functioning.
In the meantime, China is building their own space station.
Russia and China are working together to get to the Moon.
And other countries are also getting in on the action.
India, which has plans to eventually launch their own astronauts to space.
Turkey recently announced that they are developing their own space agency
with hopes to go to the Moon.
Brazil has an up-and-coming space program Space has been relatively peaceful
for most of history.
But today, more countries are establishing military branches for space.
And more militaries are relying on satellites for communication and security.
It's a tense climate in military space these days.
The U.S.'s primary military space concern is
that another nation could interfere with any of our satellites.
Last year, a Russian satellite trailed a U.S. spy satellite, backed off,
and appeared to shoot some kind of projectile into space.
And intentionally interfering with satellites is a big deal.
It could disable military GPS on land,
cut off telecommunications, and create dangerous space junk.
Let's say, hypothetically, one military destroys another military's satellite.
That satellite that was destroyed would create a cloud of space junk that are little pieces
of trash moving at 17,000 miles per hour around the Earth, which also puts every other satellite
in the way of that junk in danger.
So, we've actually seen a lot of restraint in space.
There's a real mutually assured destruction element of this happening in space
that I think is keeping everyone kind of on their best behavior.
It's starting to feel as if geopolitics in space is going to play more of a role
than it has in the past, and it's shifting.
Here's what you need to know: The Space Station will come to an end soon,
and new alliances are forming as a result.
More countries are entering space, exploring the Moon and beyond.
And military powers are also rising alongside civil projects.
Plus, private players are also working to create a space economy.
Learn more about that in the next lesson.