Last week, news outlets discovered that NASA has been quietly working on a secret new project aimed not at conquering outer space, but the gaming industry. The government agency is reportedly working on a new MMO with developer Virtual Heroes, the same company behind America’s Army, a squad-based third-person shooter funded by the US army as part of a public relations campaign to show just how extremely awesome killing terrorists can be. After the recent and shocking discovery that James Carville is an alien lifeform, it is presumed that the goal of NASA’s game, Astronaut: Moon, Mars & Beyond, is to increase recruitment for the impending interplanetary crusade Operation Xenoform Freedom. Democracy: it’s not just for Earthlings anymore.

With a demo scheduled for later this year, NASA has released some early screens and video of one of Astronaut’s internally tested alpha builds exclusively to Counterfeitculture.com