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As the U.S. prepares to return astronauts to the Moon, the Pentagon is turning its focus to the vast region between traditional Earth orbits and its natural satellite as an emerging front for military operations.

The Trump administration released an executive order in December focused on space superiority, calling for the U.S. to be capable of detecting, characterizing and countering threats from very low Earth orbit and through cislunar space and to become the standard-bearer for terrestrial and cislunar position, navigation and timing.

• AFRL and DARPA ready new satellites for cislunar monitoring

• Domain awareness is a growing market for industry

The executive order spelled out that the once-benign environment, which has largely hosted scientific experiments, could one day become a battleground, U.S. Space Force Gen. Stephen Whiting, head of Space Command, told reporters at the Air and Space Forces Association’s Warfare Symposium in Aurora, Colorado, in late February. “We want to make sure that we’re not surprised at cislunar space and that some other actor doesn’t begin to use it for military advantage,” Whiting said.

U.S. military agencies are testing new technologies to deliver that awareness. The Air Force Research Laboratory and the Space Force have completed a satellite built to track objects in cislunar space known as Oracle-M that was slated to launch by year-end. Once on orbit, Oracle-M is expected to provide persistent situational awareness of the area and to demonstrate new tracking and navigation capabilities, according to the service’s Space Systems Command.

Oracle-M is intended to launch as a secondary payload under the USSF-112 mission on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan rocket. The Space Force has grounded the Vulcan for all National Security Space Launch missions as the service and ULA investigate the cause of a solid rocket motor anomaly during a Feb. 12 launch. That investigative process could take months to complete, Space Force officials said at the conference.

Meanwhile, DARPA is honing lower-cost technologies to support satellites in cislunar space via its Lunar Assay via Small Satellite Orbiter (LASSO) program focused on autonomous navigation and advanced propulsion. Under LASSO, the agency aims to launch a prototype satellite to map water source distribution on the Moon in high resolution using a sensor built by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, DARPA’s LASSO Program Manager Steven Chambers says. The program is expected to begin conceptual design of the satellite soon, then move into detailed design, trajectory simulation, test and assembly.

Beijing is racing to demonstrate critical infrastructure in and around Earth’s natural satellite. China became the first and so far only country to land on the far side of the Moon in 2019. It launched several satellites into specialized cislunar and lunar orbits in 2024 to test communication and navigation capabilities.

Meanwhile, Russia has launched experimental sensors into “unique and concerning orbits, blurring the lines between military and civil space activities,” Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said at the conference.

Both countries are reducing the footprint of their satellites and building proliferated constellations to make them less vulnerable, Space Force Lt. Gen. Gregory Gagnon, commander of Combat Forces Command, told reporters, noting that smaller satellites are harder to see.

Gagnon said outer space is meant to be a peaceful domain, “and we’d like to keep it that way.”

Space companies see cislunar surveillance as an emerging but growing opportunity. Slingshot Aerospace, a space intelligence and autonomy company with a global network of optical telescopes, is supporting customers in both the civil and national security space sectors, but the market is still “finding its footing,” said Audrey Schaffer, senior vice president of global policy and government strategy.

Anduril is investing further in space domain awareness; it announced on March 10 plans to acquire ExoAnalytic Solutions for an undisclosed amount. Once finalized, the deal would allow Anduril to harness the commercial provider’s software analytics and more than 400 global telescopes for persistent, high-fidelity deep space awareness.

As commercial providers bolster the Pentagon’s ability to see into deep space, the Space Force is improving its exquisite ground sensors. An upgraded version of the L3Harris Technologies Ground-Based Optical Sensor System (GBOSS) entered operation last year at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, while a second system is undergoing operational acceptance in Maui, Hawaii. Upgrades are planned for a third telescope stationed on the Diego Garcia atoll in the Indian Ocean, too.

Those types of sensors provide the critical data for commanders to “prosecute, either offensively or defensively, on a target,” said Art Loureiro, director of space defense solutions at L3Harris. With GBOSS, the Space Force can investigate on-orbit activity within a matter of minutes, from low Earth orbit into deep space, he said.

The environment between geostationary and lunar orbits is becoming busier as the Moon becomes a focal point for U.S.-China competition. The two countries are racing to establish a sustained human presence on the lunar surface with crewed space programs. The U.S. aims to land astronauts on the Moon within two years via its Artemis series of missions; China is targeting a landing date in 2030.

The stakes are as high as the destination. Whichever country reaches the surface first “will write the rules of the road for what we can do on the Moon,” Michael Gold, president of civil and international space at Redwire and former NASA associate administrator for space policy and partnerships, testified before the U.S. Senate in September.

As NASA prepares for the Artemis II mission—a 10-day piloted test run of the Lockheed Martin Orion crewed spacecraft—Whiting is making his own preparations for the mission as the Pentagon’s manager for human spaceflight support.

“Any time we know something’s going to the Moon, we’re going to use it to rehearse our TTPs,” Whiting said, referring to tactics, techniques and procedures.