Outer space

NATO’s going to call space a war zone, but don’t worry there won’t be any fighting

At an upcoming summit in early December, NATO is expected to declare space as a “warfighting domain,” partly in response to new developments in technology.

If it does declare space a war zone, NATO could start using space weapons that can destroy satellites or incoming enemy missiles. But what is this technology and how could it enable a war?

In a recent first for space technology, Russia has launched a commercial satellite specifically designed to rendezvous with other satellites. The purpose of this vehicle is peaceful: it will perform maintenance tasks on other satellites in orbit.

The fact that commercial companies have this capability probably means that it already exists for global military powers. This has caught the attention of NATO. If a country or company can maneuver its own satellites into close proximity of others, then it can do so for military or sabotage purposes – potentially without detection.