Ahead of the 77th International Astronautical Congress in Antalya, Romanian cosmonaut Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu discusses the new geopolitics of space with Atlas News Romania: the strategic rivalry between the United States and China, the vulnerability of orbital infrastructure, the risks of escalation when satellites become targets, the future rules of human presence on the Moon and Romania’s co-chairmanship of ATLAC within COPUOS. He argues that European strategic autonomy is not credible without space autonomy, and that Romania must move from consumer to contributor by becoming indispensable in a few well-chosen fields. Genuine space security, he warns, rests not on deterrence alone, but on resilience, credible rules, transparency and cooperation built before rivalry becomes conflict.