Marcus Rivera

Washington DC-based space policy analyst covering the intersection of space exploration, geopolitics, and international law. Tracks how nations use space programs to project power and negotiate influence.

Marcus Rivera

RECENT ARTICLES

The people who remember everyone’s birthday but quietly dread their own because they know exactly how few of those messages will actually come back

There’s a specific kind of tired that comes from being the reliable one for so long you’ve forgotten what it feels like to be chosen instead of needed

The Spacesuit Gap: Why Artemis III’s 2028 Landing Date Is Already Slipping

The cruelest thing about adult friendships isn’t that they end. It’s that they rarely end cleanly enough to mourn, so we carry them around half-alive for decades, unsure whether we’re still friends or just people who used to be

Trump’s Iran War Justification Unravels as His Own Intelligence Chief Breaks Ranks

The people who mistake self-sufficiency for healing and don’t realize they’ve just gotten better at hiding what still hurts

There’s a specific kind of loneliness that comes from having plenty of friends and realizing not one of them would notice if you quietly withdrew for a month

A Barbed Wire Fence in Umm al-Khair Becomes a Referendum on Israel’s Settlement Enforcement

The strange loneliness of being the friend everyone calls during a crisis but nobody checks on during an ordinary Tuesday

Switzerland Brokers DRC-M23 Deal as Eastern Congo Fighting Persists

There’s a particular exhaustion that comes from being the person everyone describes as ‘so put together’ when you’re the only one who knows what it costs

The ‘Quadruple Tap’: Anatomy of a Strike Pattern Designed to Kill First Responders

The Pentagon’s Quiet Bet on GPS-Free Spacecraft Navigation

Why NASA Is Lighting Fires on the Moon: The Gravity Blind Spot in Spacecraft Safety Standards

Ambition has a shelf life nobody warns you about. One day the thing you chased stops feeling like a destination and starts feeling like a debt.

The people who apologize before they speak aren’t polite. They’re bracing for a reaction they learned to expect long before this conversation started.