The U.S.-led alliance said its collective defense principles will be extended to outer space in response to developments made at last year's Brussels Summit.

"At the 2021 Brussels Summit, Allies agreed that attacks to, from, or within space present a clear challenge to the security of the Alliance, the impact of which could threaten national and Euro-Atlantic prosperity, security, and stability, and could be as harmful to modern societies as a conventional attack. Such attacks could lead to the invocation of Article 5. A decision as to when such attacks would lead to the invocation of Article 5 would be taken by the North Atlantic Council on a case-by-case basis," the document states.

Article 5 of NATO's founding treaty states that an attack on any one of the 30 allies will be considered an attack on them all. Until now, it has only applied to more traditional military attacks on land, sea, or in the air, and more recently in cyberspace.

Considering that members have recognized that space is essential to NATO's deterrence and defense, NATO will consider a range of potential options, for council approval, across the conflict spectrum to deter and defend against threats to or attacks on allies' space systems, it said.

Around 2,000 satellites orbit the earth, over half operated by NATO countries, ensuring everything from cellphone and banking services to weather forecasts. Military commanders rely on some of them to navigate, communicate, share intelligence, and detect missile launches.

In December 2019, NATO leaders declared space to be the alliance's "fifth domain" of operations. Many member countries are concerned about what they say is increasingly aggressive behavior in space by China and Russia.

Space has become "increasingly important" for the security and prosperity of NATO members, the alliance added.