We Go To The Moon Because It's Convincing

Space Travel makes valuable propaganda

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last couple of weeks, you will be aware of the Artemis II mission in which four astronauts travelled around the dark side of the moon, before successfully splashing back down on Earth. The mission was an obvious show of how advanced our science and technology have become in the 21st century. It was also a tense reminder for the rest of the world of the sheer power that the United States holds. At face value, NASA is an organisation who work to better our understanding of our home planet and its celestial surroundings. However, space travel has never just been about science. International competition and strong nationalism have been embedded at its heart since we first attempted it, over sixty years ago. Such sentiment was sadly predictable. If you feel the need to show off the superiority of your nation, then where better to do this but in one of the last places that humans don’t yet rule: space.

It would be easy to argue that the days of Kennedy and Khrushchev were decades ago, and that the US had to boast its strength due to their Eastern competition. In our modern times, it can’t be propaganda, right? Wrong. When most people hear the P-word, it’s likely that they imagine large posters tacked to a brick wall, depicting images of tanks or a message about morale. It feels like a word of the past, something only now brought up in high school history lessons about World War II. What we fail to realise is that propaganda is still alive and well, and that we are exposed to it on a daily basis. Yes, the space race is now well and truly over, but the American flag still stands on the moon. While presidents and governments have changed, the intense patriotism tied to space travel never really went away. In 1969, the stars and stripes planted by those on the Apollo 11 mission were not only a sign of the success of their journey, but became a symbol of America’s triumph over the Eastern Bloc, communism, and anyone else deemed a rival of Western glory. The effects of this are still seen today. Everyone knows Armstrong; who cares about Gagarin? In April 2026, the undertones have remained largely the same, albeit being more implicit. Instead of a cold war against one group of people, it now appears that the US, under Trump, feels the need to showcase its tenacity to anyone who will bother to look. It’s now them against the rest of the world, and they’re not scared to flex their muscles. In a time of uncertainty over war in Iran, escalating inflation and constant criticism of the president, Artemis II, with its hardy crew, stood as a blatant reminder that America remains top dog.

It’s hardly surprising that a new feature film centred around the epic wonders of American space travel was released adjacent to NASA’s latest expedition. While Project Hail Mary alone may just feel like nerdy entertainment, in a wider context, it becomes part of a greater display of nationalist propaganda, in which all corners of the media are flooded with ‘land of the free’ rhetoric. For a contemporary viewer, the discoveries that an intergalactic Ryan Gosling makes are not purely for the benefit of global understanding. They are symbols of a particular perseverance, engineering and intellect which are distinctly American. 

At the end of the day, space is just another business. A ridiculously wealthy, consumptive, and divisive business caused by threats of nuclear war. For a sector aimed at looking beyond our world, its implications are disappointingly down to earth. Different countries with different rockets start up different rivalries with their neighbours, while each tells its people how great they are. From the space race to Artemis II, propagandistic sentiment remains an unfortunate driving force behind this branch of science.

Illustration from Clemmie Swiffen