Who Owns the Moon? Billionaires and Superpowers Race for Lunar Riches Despite Treaty Banning Ownership

WASHINGTON — Nearly six decades after world powers agreed that no nation could claim the moon, a new race to settle its surface is testing whether that promise still holds.

The United States and China are each pushing to build permanent bases near the lunar south pole. Private companies backed by some of the world's richest people are building the rockets and landers to get there. And the legal question at the center of it all, who can own what on the moon, remains unsettled.

A Cold War promise

The 1967 Outer Space Treaty, negotiated at the height of the Cold War, set the foundation for space law. It declares that outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, is "not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means."

The treaty was designed to keep the U.S. and the Soviet Union from planting flags and claiming territory beyond Earth. More than 110 countries have since ratified it, including all major spacefaring nations.

But the treaty was written long before commercial spaceflight existed. It does not clearly address whether companies or countries can extract and own resources such as water ice, metals or helium-3.

A later agreement, the 1979 Moon Agreement, attempted to declare lunar resources the "common heritage of mankind." Few countries joined, and none of the major space powers did.

The US approach: Artemis Accords

The United States has moved to fill the gap. In 2015, Congress passed a law allowing American citizens and companies to own resources they extract from space.

In 2020, NASA and the State Department launched the Artemis Accords, a set of nonbinding principles for lunar exploration. The accords affirm that extracting and using space resources does not amount to national appropriation, which the Outer Space Treaty forbids.

The accords also allow for "safety zones" around lunar operations to prevent interference between nations.

At the launch, then-NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said the accords were consistent with existing law.

"We are operationalizing the Outer Space Treaty for the purposes of creating the broadest, most inclusive, largest coalition of human spaceflight in the history of humankind," Bridenstine said.

The coalition has grown rapidly. Late last month, NASA announced that Albania, Croatia, Côte d'Ivoire and San Marino had signed, bringing the total to 76 countries. Seventeen nations have joined in 2026 alone, the biggest year for the accords since 2024.

Critics argue the accords effectively allow countries to claim lunar resources in violation of the spirit of the 1967 treaty, favoring the U.S. and commercial mining interests while bypassing the United Nations.

A permanent American base

The U.S. is now planning a lasting presence on the moon. In March, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced that the agency was pausing the Lunar Gateway, a planned space station in lunar orbit, and would focus instead on building a base on the surface.

NASA has outlined a roughly $20 billion program to construct a permanent outpost powered by nuclear and solar energy at the moon's south pole by 2032. The plan calls for robotic missions, including about 25 launches through 2029, followed by power systems such as fission reactors and eventually a semi-permanent human station.

Isaacman said in May that the plans mean the U.S. will "never give up the Moon again."

Lawmakers have framed the effort as a competition. Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, said a NASA authorization bill directs the agency "to create a permanent moon base so that we can get there before China does."

Private companies are central to the strategy. NASA is relying on SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, and Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos, to develop landers capable of carrying astronauts to the lunar surface.

China's rival plan

China, which is not part of the Artemis Accords, is pursuing its own path. Together with Russia, it is leading the International Lunar Research Station, a planned base at the lunar south pole. Seventeen countries, including Egypt, Pakistan, South Africa, Thailand and Venezuela, have committed to the program.

China has said it aims to land astronauts on the moon by 2030. Its Chang'e-7 mission, planned for this year, is designed to survey the south pole for water ice and other resources. China and Russia have also agreed to work on a nuclear power station for the lunar base.

Some scientists believe China could reach the surface with astronauts before the United States, given delays in NASA's lander programs.

"It would not surprise me at all if China gets there first," Simeon Barber, a lunar scientist at the Open University in Britain, told BBC News.

What's at stake

The south pole is the main prize because of frozen water believed to sit in permanently shadowed craters. That ice could provide drinking water, breathable oxygen and rocket fuel, making it far cheaper to sustain a base and launch deeper missions to Mars.

The moon may also hold valuable materials, including rare earth elements and helium-3, an isotope scarce on Earth that some scientists believe could one day fuel nuclear fusion.

Ouyang Ziyuan, chief scientist of China's lunar exploration program, has said lunar helium-3 could meet humanity's energy needs for thousands of years. Many experts remain skeptical, noting that helium-3 fusion is still far from practical.

The best landing and building sites near the south pole are limited. The terrain is rugged, and only a small number of locations offer both sunlight for power and access to ice. That raises the risk that competing nations or companies will seek the same spots.

Legal gray zone

Legal experts say the current framework leaves key questions unanswered. If a company mines ice from a crater, can it exclude others from that site? Do safety zones amount to territorial claims in practice? Who settles disputes?

The United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space has been discussing rules for space resources, but progress has been slow, and any agreement would require consensus among countries with competing interests.

For now, the answer to who owns the moon remains the same as in 1967: no one. But as rockets carrying robots, reactors and eventually astronauts head for the lunar south pole, the countries and companies that arrive first may shape what that answer means in practice.