From the rules:
Planetaire is a game of planetary war. From the surface, through the atmosphere, and into outer space, two players battle using fighters, mother ships, killer satellites and beam tanks.
Description:
Planetaire is an abstract strategy game played on a board of four concentric circular tracks (orbits). A player takes one action on a turn; an action can be moving a piece, attacking with a piece, or loading or unloading fighters (which can be carried by motherships).
The different pieces move and attack differently. Fighters move two spaces a turn and can only attack adjacent pieces. Motherships can move one space or jump into hyperspace from the outer orbit (allowing them to re-enter any space in the outer orbit on a later turn), and they have beam weapons which can attack pieces two or three spaces away. Beam tanks and killer satellites also have beam weapons; beam tanks can only move around the inner orbit and satellites can only jump into hyperspace.
The object of the game is to remove all opposing pieces from the inner orbit.