Space emerges as new front in great power competition, officials warn

For decades, space was imagined as a kind of neutral commons — a quiet layer of infrastructure floating serenely above earthly conflict. At the Munich Cyber Security Conference this week, that idea sounded less like policy and more like nostalgia.

Military officials, regulators and technology executives described an orbital environment that no longer resembles a scientific frontier. Instead, it looks increasingly like the next arena of great power competition — crowded with satellites, vulnerable to disruption, and governed by rules written for a far simpler age.

Ganley’s answer is what he calls an “outernet” — a satellite communications network designed to operate independently of terrestrial infrastructure. Unlike conventional satellite internet, which ultimately connects back to ground stations and cable networks, this system would remain functional even if those systems were destroyed.