Though humanity's gaze is beginning to drift skyward, the Earth remains heavy with old weight. In the early decades of the Sol Expansion era, no unified voice speaks for Earth’s interests in space — only a growing chorus of conflicting claims, fractured alliances, and emerging blocs.   National governments still fund research, grant launch approvals, and negotiate orbital contracts. But their reach is limited, their agendas domestic, and their priorities increasingly misaligned. Some back off-world initiatives as prestige projects. Others resist, seeing them as costly distractions from crumbling infrastructure, civil unrest, or rising seas.   Tensions flare in less visible places: — Legal disputes over orbital traffic corridors — Unrecognized claims on lunar resource zones — Quiet funding of corporate proxies and intelligence gathering on competing platforms   Shadow groups, disillusioned with both state and corporate dominance, begin organizing in the gaps.   Earth’s gravity remains political as well as physical.