The frenzied race for Space

 

On Tuesday July 21, the federal government released a new Statement on Space.

Space, and particularly cislunar Space or the area between the earth and the moon, is an economic and military place of growing importance featuring a race for its domination and control between the major imperialist blocs of the United States, the European Union, Russia and China.

The global space economy is estimated to have already surpassed half a trillion dollars in annual value and could approach or exceed US$1 trillion within a decade. Few sectors can point to a similar growth trajectory.

There are now more than 30,000 human-made objects in Space, many in constellations of satellite groups tied to terrestrial observation and communication. Leon Musk’s Starlink currently consists of 10,413 satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) providing broadband Internet service in approximately 160 countries and territories. Meanwhile, China has submitted proposals for or two constellations, the first dubbed CTC-1 with 96,714 satellites alongside a second, creatively called CTC-2, having 96,714 spacecraft too, for an insane total of 193,428 satellites across the two networks (far more than Starlink’s proposed 42,000). The submission states that the satellites will focus “on technologies such as detection and inspection in the field of low-altitude electromagnetic space security, integrated security defense systems, electromagnetic space security assessment of airspace, and low-altitude airspace safety supervision services”.

Companies such as the US Marvel Space Communications, the US-French E - SPACE, and Canada’s Kepler Communications have applied for LEO satellite network data for 170,000, 110,000, and 110,000 satellites respectively.

This reflects that the competition in the current satellite field, especially in low - orbit satellite constellations, is becoming increasingly fierce.

The amount of space junk – debris left from abandoned launch rockets and decommissioned satellites – is already a major concern as the potential for space junk-satellite collisions grows. It is the idiot side of the commercial frenzy behind satellite placements.

What is also a concern alongside the commercialisation of Space is its militarisation.

The Chinese statement above refers to “integrated security defense systems”, and the US has created a Space arm of its Department of War (SPACECOM) with plans for armed humans (“Space Guardians”) to be placed in orbit to ensure US control of Space by military means.

Following the lead of its US masters, the Australian government earlier this year released the 2026 Defence Strategy which referred to the new five domains of warfare: land, sea, air, space and cyber. According to the Australian Space Agency, “Space command is now recognised as an important defence domain alongside air, land, sea and cyber operations.”

Tuesday’s release of the Statement on Space identifies five areas of Australian space capability:

• Trusted space services 

• Spaceflight ecosystem 

• Space platforms 

• Microgravity ecosystem 

• Exploration technologies  

It makes little mention of the military objective of Space command knowing that Australian support for the US militarisation of Space will be controversial. However, there are nine references in the document to defence, and it notes that further reference to the military use of Space is kept separate from the Statement:

The Statement on Space complements, but remains distinct from, ongoing work and dedicated arrangements on space technology development, adoption and use by Australia’s national security, defence, intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

A government committed to independent and peaceful relations with the global community would have no hesitation in declaring that Australia will not participate in the militarisation of Space. It would require our representatives at the United Nations to recommend the Outer Space Treaty be updated and tightened to include a prohibition on the deployment of all types of weapons in Space and to prevent the use of Space for directing warfare on the Earth.

Until we have a genuinely anti-imperialist Australian independence, we will never have such a government.