We stand at the cusp of the second space race, and unlike the first, the stakes are no longer confined to prestige missions or symbolic firsts. They now reach into surveillance, navigation, communications, supply chains, and the infrastructure that underwrites both military power and economic exchange. In the past three years alone, the deployment of space-based assets has underscored the emergence of space as an operational domain. Closer to home, in 2018, Pakistan was the first state to adopt China’s indigenously developed satellite-based radio navigation system ‘BeiDou’, and it was notably relied upon when India executed Operation Sindoor. Similarly, Iran has been relying on BeiDou in the ongoing West Asia conflict. Further afield, the hacking of a US satellite company on the eve of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the reported use of space assets by USSPACECOM in Venezuela reflect the importance of space as a theatre of conflict and for conventional military operations. These instances are a microcosm of the fact that outer space is no longer a distant concern but rather a quintessential example of the “tragedy of the commons”, where governance is lagging behind capability.