Hello Everybody,
Who owns the Moon?
Neil Armstrong claimed he wanted to plant the United Nations
flag on the surface of the Moon, but US President Richard Nixon
insisted he plant the US flag instead. So, like a good soldier,
the first man who landed on the Moon did as he was told.
No other country in the world has planted its own flag on the
surface of the Moon. Planting the country's own flag on a piece
of land has always historically meant ownership of that property.
So does that mean the USA owns the Moon?
-=begin article=-
Subject: Axios space

Russia, the United States' long-standing partner in space, is
turning to China for its lunar ambitions.
Why it matters: The U.S. and Russia have been uneasy partners in orbit
for decades, but as the two grow further apart in space, their rift
could reshape the geopolitical landscape above Earth — and on it — for years to come.
"We're not going to see the same level of cooperation between the
United States and Russia, compared to what we saw in the 1990s ...
when Russia was broke, going through an economic catastrophe after
the collapse of the Soviet bloc and was desperate," space policy
expert Bleddyn Bowen told me.
Driving the news: Last week, China and Russia signed an agreement
to work together to develop a lunar research station on or orbiting
the Moon, allying Russia with a nation many see to be in opposition
to U.S. interests in space.
The memorandum of understanding comes after Russia declined to sign
NASA's Artemis Accords governing international cooperation and uses
of the Moon, and after a Russian official criticized NASA's plans
to build a small space station in lunar orbit.
Russia was initially expected to provide an airlock for the small
lunar space station, which is part of NASA's plans to land people on
the Moon, but now "NASA will be pursuing other options for the provider
of the airlock," NASA said in a statement.
The backstory: U.S.-Russia space relations began to sour in the
early 2010s when Russia annexed Crimea.
The two countries' space programs kept them talking via the
International Space Station, but since then, Russia's public posture
toward the U.S. on space issues changed, experts say.
"We saw a marked change in how the Russians interacted in multilateral
space forums," Brian Weeden of the Secure World Foundation told me.
There was "a marked increase in the hostility of their language against
pretty much anything the U.S. was proposing."
The intrigue: China's space program and industry are booming, with
support from the government and a long-term vision of what the nation
hopes to accomplish. Russia's star, on the other hand, is fading.
Russia is losing a significant source of revenue as SpaceX flies
astronauts to the space station, ending NASA's reliance on the
Russian-made Soyuz rocket.
This partnership with China will allow Russia to work with a nation
on the rise when it comes to space, while China gets to take advantage
of Russia's established technical acumen.
Just as important, if not more, the two powers together will wield
geopolitical weight in forming international space policy.
As Europe, Canada, Japan and others are already partnering with the
U.S. on its Moon plans, the partnership between Russia and China could potentially pull in support from other nations — if they decide they
want partners.
What to watch: It's not clear how high a priority the Russia-China
lunar research station will have as China works to build its own space
station orbiting Earth in the coming years.
The division of labor for the two nations hasn't been laid out, and
there isn't a clear funding source announced yet.
And experts say that the door isn't necessarily closed for the U.S.
and Russia to partner with one another in space in the future.
-=end article=-
If the matter is now settled as to who owns the Moon, a new issue
remains. Who owns Mars? Since no country has yet to plant its own
flag on Mars, a whole planet may be at stake ...
--Lee
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We Put Big Loads In Tight Places
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* Origin:
news://eljaco.se (2:203/2)