DALLAS — If you found yourself looking to the sky in awe during the Artemis II mission, you weren’t alone. U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was right there with you.

But geopolitics here on Earth is also joining our missions into space, as Sen. Cruz made it clear, America is in a race with China.

“China has stated their intention to go to the moon, to land an astronaut on the surface of the moon by 2030. And we are going to beat China back to the moon. And we’re in the middle of what is, essentially, a land grab,” the Republican told us on Inside Texas Politics.

Sen. Cruz says the most critical territory on the moon is near the southern pole, where there would be access to water. He says they’ve also mapped craters high enough to provide access to solar power that could power a lunar base.

“It is American policy,” Cruz said proudly. “We are going to create a lunar base, a base on the surface of the moon to engage in exploration, to engage in discovery. The funding is there.”

The lawmaker says there won’t be a major cut to NASA’s budget, so these missions are expected to move full steam ahead.

Artemis II was the first crewed flight that took humans the farthest we’ve ever been from Earth. The four astronauts used the 10-day mission to successfully fly around the moon and back using the new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft.

Artemis III, expected in mid-2027, will test our ability to rendezvous and dock between Orion and a private commercial spacecraft that will be used to land astronauts on the Moon.

SpaceX and Blue Origin developed the commercial landers, and one or both will be tested during this docking mission in low Earth orbit.

Artemis IV is the big one, with a target date of early 2028. This is when American astronauts will head back to the surface of the moon. The crew will transfer from Orion into the chosen lunar landers that will take them to the surface and back.

Artemis V is expected to kickstart annual missions to the moon. This is also when NASA wants to begin building a Moon base. This is expected in late 2028.

The Senate Commerce Committee, chaired by Sen. Cruz, just passed out legislation that would ensure the Johnson Space Center near Houston would continue to be the command center for any lunar base.

But the Republican also says the commercial space industry is critical to the future success of American space exploration, and it will work hand-in-hand with NASA. The Senator says it has already created 50,000 high-paying jobs. And SpaceX is based here in Texas.

“The beauty of it is that both are integral. We no longer have a system that thinks it’s only the federal government that can lead on space. And I’m a huge champion of the commercial space industry because the investment that it’s going to take is massive,” Cruz explained. “I’ve predicted for more than a decade that the first trillionaire will be made in space. There are enormous economic opportunities.”

Back here on Earth, the major geopolitical news continues to be the war in Iran.

Senator Cruz says the U.S. has succeeded in defanging Iran’s military as well as taking out nearly all of that country’s senior military leadership. And he agrees with President Donald Trump’s objective of preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

The Republican says he doesn’t think there’s any possibility the conflict will bog down into a forever war.

In terms of regime change, he was blunt.

“Who the next government is in Iran, that’s not our problem. I’m not interested in nation building. I’m not interested in turning Iran into a democratic utopia. But I would like to see them have a government that is not led by Islamists who hate America, who are chanting death to America, who are funding people murdering Americans. As long as they’re not killing Americans, they can run their own country and that’s their own business,” he said.