Japan and China are joining America, Russia and Europe in the race to dominate space.

jaxa, Japan’s space agency, confirmed this week that its triple spacecraft, the largest unmanned spacecraft ever to be sent to the moon, named Japanese Selenological and Engineering Explorer (selene), is scheduled to launch on September 13. The Japanese lunar mission is reported to be the largest since the U.S. Apollo Project, which ended in 1972. The main satellite will orbit approximately 60 miles (100 kilometers) above the moon’s surface and will be used by researchers to study the moon’s origins and evolution. jaxa spokesman Tatsuo Oshima confirmed, “We have every confidence that the mission is now on track.”

Japan isn’t the only Asian nation seeking to establish a lunar program. According to China’s minister of defense technology, China will also be ready to launch its first lunar satellite by the end of the year. The Washington Post commented, “China’s military-run space program has taken a great leap forward in recent years, and the country sent shock waves through the region in 2003, when it became the first Asian country to put its own astronauts into space” (August 24).

Additionally, the Chinese surprised many earlier this year when they became the first to ever shoot down an old satellite using a land-based anti-satellite missile, an event that proved how advanced the Chinese space program is and confirming China as a serious competitor in the race for space.

The Washington Post called the advances being made by these two nations as starting the countdown “in the hottest space race since the United States beat the Soviet Union to the moon nearly four decades ago.”

The space race between China and Japan is catapulting both nations to greater heights on the world’s scientific and military scenes. Furthermore, it reveals the strategic importance of possessing a strong presence in space, and is also symbolic of the mounting geopolitical ambition of Japan and China.

In today’s technologically advanced world, every nation racing to establish a foothold in space is acutely aware that dominance of outer space leads to dominance here on Earth. Continue to watch the heavens; space wars will keep heating up.