When General Chance Saltzman took the podium with his keynote address at the space symposium in Colorado Springs this week, his message was clear: The US is entering a new era of space activity.

“Threats we face from our strategic competitors [έχουν] increase significantly,” Saltzman told CNBC after his speech. “The congestion we see in space with tracked objects and the number of satellite payloads have increased.”

Military experts say space is likely to be the front line in future conflicts – a battlefield that can spill over into the private sector and affect civilians in real time. One example is the unprecedented cyber attack on the European communications network of the American satellite operator Viasat during the mobilization of Russian troops to cross the border.

Saltzman said tactics by adversaries like Russia and China include blocking GPS communications, lasers, objects that interfere with orbital cameras to prevent image collection, and anti-satellite missiles like the one Russia tested in late 2021.

“We see satellites that can capture another satellite and take it out of its working orbit. All of these possibilities are extremely worrisome,” he said.

Earlier this year, NASA administrator Bill Nelson warned of China’s intentions in space and stressed that Beijing could lay claim to parts of the moon in the future because, he said, “we’re living in a space race.”

Speaking to Politico, he stressed that “it’s a fact that we are in a space race” and noted that “special attention” is needed.

“And it’s true that we have to be careful not to go to the moon region under the guise of scientific research. And the possibility that they will say:” far from here, we are here, these lands are ours “is not excluded, he said characteristically.

China is planning a manned mission to the moon in 2023, and NASA has launched a major new program to return humans to our natural satellite. The Artemis program, which is the successor to the legendary Apollo program, will build a lunar space station and bases on the moon to receive manned missions. The first of these was supposed to take place in 2023, but, apparently, it will be delayed by at least two years. China, for its part, has announced that it will establish a base on the Moon together with Russia.

According to CNBC