Highlands Ranch, CO – On Monday, November 4, Denver Anti-War Action (DAWA) was joined by 25 community members to march and rally in front of Lockheed Martin’s Human Spaceflight Center. The group demanded disclosure to the public regarding the purpose of Lockheed Martin's Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) program. 

The event began with a march on the building; however, themarch was short lived due to police cracking down with the threat of arrests unless organizers backed up to the sidewalk. DAWA member and emcee Solveig Swain stated, “These cops care about shutting down our right to peaceful protest, but turn a blind eye to the endless war crimes being carried out by Lockheed? Shame!”

The event continued on the sidewalk, where a picket and rally were held with speeches from socialist, student and anti-war organizations. 

Vincent Verheij with DAWA spoke on how militarism harms the average American, stating, ”Last year $1748 of the average Americans hard-earned tax dollars went to military contractors for the Pentagon.” The crowd found this fact shameful, and expressed that, especially in times as financially hard as these, this money should be going towards addressing the needs of people at home, rather than harming people overseas. 

Many of these weapons that Lockheed Martin and other weapons manufacturers produce are sold directly to Israel, with the intent to be used upon the Palestinian people.

Khalid Hamu from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization stated, “The resistance in Palestine is waging a struggle to see their people liberated. Israel has not been able to stamp out the resistance after more than a year now. The biggest military power in the Middle East has been failing to win their military objectives.” Despite the Israeli military failing its objectives in Palestine, the genocidal siege carries on; yet so does the resistance in Palestine and resistance to weapons manufacturers the world over. 

After speeches, chants, and marching along the sidewalk, the event wrapped up. Organizers stated that this is only the beginning of their actions targeting the Lockheed Martin Human Spaceflight Center, and that they will be returning soon to continue fighting for their demands.

DAWA held a teach-in the previous week to raise awareness about space militarism and Lockheed Martin’s role in Colorado. The DRACO program, funded by NASA and DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), is often marketed as a peaceful advancement of technology for space travel. However, DARPA’s funding, primarily for military applications, signals a new arms race in space.

Lockheed Martin’s partnership with DARPA has historically led to significant military advancements, including the F-35 fighter jet and MLRS artillery systems, sold to Israel. In 2022, Eric Brown, a vice president of Lockheed Martin’s space program, described the DRACO program as a “watershed moment,” comparing it to the Manhattan Project of today.

DAWA urged community members to recognize Lockheed Martin’s space program as another means of developing technologies for genocide and to reject attempts to portray these developments as technologies for neutral space exploration applications. DARPA’s funding, with a history of U.S. government investment in military technologies that were later sold to Israel and other bad actors, confirms space militarism as the new arms race and market for war profiteers.

DAWA is poised to continue fighting against space militarism and Lockheed Martin until their demands to achieve disclosure, end Lockheed Martin’s aid to Israel, and to push the company out of Colorado are met.

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