Outer space, or space, is the vast expanse that exists beyond Earth's Kármán line and the vacuum that exists between celestial bodies. Needless to say, space is really huge, some say it's constantly expanding, and it consists of a lot of things you probably won't ever see.

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 into space using ICBM technology which was intended to carry ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons across long distances. This event marked the militarisation of space, creating a Sputnik crisis in the Western world and beginning the Space Race where the United States kept moving the goalposts and billion upon billion of dollars were spent.

Many countries have begun developing their own space programs since then. For now, there's just a lot of satellites for communication, navigation, and intelligence gathering. There are space weapons and the concept of space warfare has been considered, but so far, we have only seen countries attack their own satellites and several treaties on the subject of space.

Space exploration is frankly overrated. As the ozone layer protects Earth from space radiation, it means that humanity never actually evolved to withstand such radiation. This means that any human that enters space, no matter how well-built the shuttle is, will be subjected to space radiation and develop spaceflight radiation carcinogenesis which is expected to be treated by whoever shot them into space.