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| When Space Goes Dark, Life On Earth Will Feel It |
I look up at the sky on a clear night and
it’s easy to forget just how crowded space has gotten. Those tiny points of
light aren’t just stars anymore. A lot of them are satellites doing everyday
work for you, like telling your phone where you are, pushing out weather
warnings, approving credit card purchases, and keeping your internet running.
Space isn’t some far-off sci-fi place now. It’s part of the basic wiring of
modern life. And more and more, it’s starting to look like the next place where
conflicts play out.
What most people never see is what’s
happening behind the curtain. Russia has been pouring serious effort into
anti-satellite tech, and it’s not just about blowing things up with missiles.
The newer stuff is quieter and more unsettling. Satellites that creep into the
same orbit as U.S. systems and just hang there, close enough to watch or
interfere. Tools that can jam signals, mess with communications, or even knock
out networks like Starlink, which both civilians and militaries now depend on
for real-time connections.
That stuff matters way more than most
people think. Starlink isn’t just about getting better internet in the middle
of nowhere. It’s turned into a lifeline for emergency crews, disaster response
teams, and even military operations. When hurricanes wipe out cell towers or
earthquakes crush ground-based networks, satellite internet is often the only
thing still working. And if that goes dark, it’s not just movie night that gets
canceled. People lose real connections they depend on to stay safe and alive.
So when you hear about another country
sliding a weapon-capable satellite into the same orbit as an American one, that
should set off alarm bells. That’s not some harmless coincidence. It’s a
calculated move. In space, being close is a form of control. You don’t have to
blow anything up to cause serious trouble. You can jam signals, mess with
sensors, or just loom nearby as a threat. It’s basically the space version of
someone parking a surveillance van outside your house and quietly hacking into
your Wi-Fi.
We’ve
already gotten a taste of where this is heading. In Ukraine, satellite
interference has knocked out communications on the battlefield, forcing troops
to scramble and switch systems in the middle of operations. In parts of Europe,
GPS signals have been messed with so badly that ships and planes showed up
miles from where they actually were. This isn’t sci-fi. It’s practice.
And that’s where it hits home. Your
phone’s maps. The timestamps on your bank transactions. Air traffic control.
911 dispatch systems. All of it depends, at least in part, on satellites
working the way they’re supposed to. Once countries start treating space like a
shooting range, the fallout doesn’t stay on military bases. It shows up in
everyday life, right where you live.
In my novel Ghost Signal, CIA
spymaster Corey Pearson sits in a dim Nassau safehouse watching satellite
telemetry scroll across a wall-sized screen. His team is trying to understand
how a Navy surveillance drone, supposedly untouchable, was hijacked mid-flight
and driven into the sea. Corey doesn’t see a malfunction. He sees a
message. Someone has learned how to reach into secure systems without kicking
the door down. Someone is testing how blind they can make the U.S. before
anyone notices. The tension in that room mirrors what’s happening now in real
life, just without the dramatic lighting.
What’s unsettling is how quiet this kind
of warfare can be. No explosions. No mushroom clouds. Just interference,
outages, and confusion. A satellite drifts a little closer than it should. A
signal degrades. Systems hiccup. By the time leaders admit something hostile
happened, the damage is already baked in.
The upside is that the U.S. and its allies
aren’t asleep at the wheel. Space is now treated like a real military arena,
right up there with land, sea, air, and cyber. Engineers are building in
backups on top of backups. New satellites can maneuver, protect themselves, and
spread the workload so one hit doesn’t bring the whole system crashing down.
The goal is simple: if something breaks, the system keeps going instead of
falling apart.
Still, this is one of those moments where
it actually pays to pay attention. Space used to feel neutral, almost
off-limits. That idea doesn’t hold anymore. The fight over orbit isn’t about
planting flags on the moon or sci-fi bragging rights. It’s about who controls
the unseen systems that keep our daily lives running smoothly.
You’ll probably never see a satellite confrontation
unfold in real time. But if your map app suddenly stops working, your internet
cuts out during an emergency, or alerts don’t come through when they matter
most, you’ll feel the impact immediately. And by then, the conflict won’t be
coming. It’ll already be happening.
Robert Morton is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) and writes about the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC). He also writes the Corey Pearson- CIA Spymaster Series, which blends his knowledge of real-life intelligence operations with gripping fictional storytelling. His thrillers reveal the shadowy world of covert missions and betrayal with striking realism.
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