Sun: DOJ Tells Jim Jordan Where He Can Stick His Demands

Hurry!  Hurry!  Hurry!  Step Right Up and Get Your Lunar Orbit.

The moon is hot right now.

By some estimates, as many as 100 lunar missions could launch into space over the next decade — a level of interest in the moon that far surpasses the Cold War-era space race that saw the first humans set foot on the lunar surface.

With multiple nations and private companies now setting their sights on missions to the moon, experts say cislunar space — the area between Earth and the moon — could become strategically important, potentially opening up competition over resources and positioning, and even sparking geopolitical conflicts.

“We’re already seeing this competing rhetoric between the U.S. government and the Chinese government,” said Laura Forczyk, executive director of Astralytical, a space consulting firm based in Atlanta. “The U.S. is pointing to China and saying, ‘We need to fund our space initiatives to the moon and cislunar space because China is trying to get there and claim territory.’ And then Chinese politicians are saying the same thing about the United States.”

Both the U.S. and China have robust lunar exploration programs in the works, with plans to not only land astronauts on the moon but also build habitats on the surface and infrastructure in orbit. They are also not the only nations interested in the moon: South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, India and Russia are among the other countries with planned robotic missions.

Even commercial companies have lunar ambitions, with SpaceX preparing to launch a private crew this year on a tourism flight in lunar orbit, and other private companies in the U.S., Japan and Israel racing to the moon.

Increased access to space — and the moon — comes with many benefits for humanity, but it also raises the potential for tensions over competing interests, which experts say could have far-reaching economic and political consequences.

“During the Cold War, the space race was for national prestige and power,” said Kaitlyn Johnson, deputy director and fellow of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Now, we have a better understanding of the kind of benefits that operating in cislunar space can bring countries back home.”

Though definitions sometimes differ, cislunar space generally refers to the space between Earth and the moon, including the moon's surface and orbit. Any nation or entity that aims to establish a presence on the moon, or has ambitions to explore deeper into the solar system, has a vested interest in operating in cislunar space, either with communication and navigation satellites or outposts that serve as way stations between Earth and the moon.

With so many lunar missions planned over the next decade, space agencies and commercial companies will likely be angling for strategic orbits and trajectories, Forczyk said.

“It might seem like space is big, but the specific orbits that we are most interested in get filled up fast,” she added.

SCOTUS Isn't Very Good at Much

As the court marshal’s office looked into who had leaked the draft opinion of the decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion, law clerks who had secured coveted perches at the top of the judiciary scrambled for legal advice and navigated quandaries like whether to surrender their personal cellphones to investigators.

The “court family” soon realized that its sloppy security might make it impossible to ever identify the culprit: 82 people, in addition to the justices, had access to the draft opinion. “Burn bags” holding sensitive documents headed for destruction sat around for days. Internal doors swung open with numerical codes that were shared widely and went unchanged for months.

Perhaps most painful, some employees found themselves questioning the integrity of the institution they had pledged to serve, according to interviews with almost two dozen current and former employees, former law clerks, advisers to last year’s clerkship class and others close to them, who provided previously undisclosed details about the investigation. [...]

The investigation was an attempt by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to right the institution and its image after a grievous breach and slide in public trust. Instead, it may have lowered confidence inside the court and out.

Who Won the Week?


The researchers and medical experts fighting the war on cancer, as the death rate from the disease has fallen 33 percent since 1991, saving an estimated 3.8 million lives

The New York Senate Judiciary Committee, for rejecting Gov. Kathy Hochul's unacceptably right-wing nominee for chief judge of the state Supreme Court

President Biden: first POTUS to preach at Ebenezer Baptist Church; consumer confidence up, inflation down; marks two years as POTUS with impressive list of accomplishments

World's youngest female Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand, who is stepping down after serving as a role model for dealing with a pandemic, gun violence, climate change, and equal rights

The Michigan state legislature, now under Black leadership (Senate President Garlin Gilchrist & House Speaker Joe Tate) for the 1st time...and Wes Moore, sworn in as Maryland's 1st Black governor

The long arm of the Italian law, as Matteo Messina Denaro becomes the last top mafia boss to be captured, closing out the "Cosa Nostra" era depicted in "The Godfather" films

Mexico, for enacting a total ban on smoking in public places, as well as a ban on the promotion and advertising of the death sticks

Democrats in Congress and the White House, for making it clear that there will be no negotiating with House Republicans who have taken the debt limit hostage

Elvis Francois, the 47-year-old Dominican sailor who was rescued after spending 24 days adrift with nothing but a bottle of ketchup

It Keeps Happening

Authorities are scrambling to find whoever killed 10 people Saturday night in Monterey Park, California, as the city’s large Asian American community was celebrating Lunar New Year weekend.

Note to CNN:  It's "whomever".