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another tangent: I was annoyed to hear "I can't believe I'm talking with someone from outer space" about a call with people on the ISS. For me, there's nothi

another tangent: I was annoyed to hear "I can't believe I'm talking with someone from *outer* space" about a call with people on the ISS. For me, there's nothing outer about the ISS. It's also as low as you can go, barely above the earth, tightly bound to us. But I think it turns out it's not really wrong to call this area outer space. I'm not sure, for me it would be logical to have different words for being close to the Earth (in orbit or lower) and any other place in space.

deadbeeves 3y ago
It's outer space because as far as a human is concerned it's outside the atmosphere, even though it's actually skirting it. If you need a space suit for EVA then it's outer space, basically. Outer outer space could be called interplanetary, interstellar, intergalactic, etc. Not sure if there's words for the space between the Earth and the Moon (other than HEO), or above the Moon but inside the Earth's sphere of influence.