Welcome to the Inquiry from the BBC World Service.
I'm Charmaine Kosier.
Each week, one question, four expert witnesses, and an answer.
April 2025.
Colorado Springs, USA.
The city is hosting a major international space industry conference.
The US is the leading space power.
Now China seems to be catching up fast.
It has ultra-sophisticated satellites.
It's also been testing weapons which can destroy satellites in orbit.
Russia has also done that.
One of the key conference speakers is Commander General Stephen Whiting from the US government's space command.
It protects the country's interest in space.
Given this threat environment that we now find ourselves in,
there is no longer any debate that space is a warfighting domain.
That said, there has never been a war in space.
And we don't want a war to start in space or to extend into space.
So this week we're asking how much of a threat is satellite warfare?
So today I think we have reached a number somewhere around 11,700 active satellites orbiting Earth.
Dr Raji Rajigalpalan is a resident senior fellow with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in Canberra.