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Space Force’s International Partnerships in Commercial Space Industry

Article by Meredith Roaten                                          February 25, 2021                                              (nationaldefensemagazine.org)

• At the Air Force Association’s Virtual Aerospace Warfare Symposium on February 25th, Space Force chief of operations, General John “Jay” Raymond, said that Space Force will prioritize collaboration with the commercial space industry and partners around the world. The commercial space industry has lowered the barriers to space, so that almost all Space Force missions can be commercially viable with smaller, more operationally relevant satellites, Raymond said. “We want to build a very fused connection with commercial industry.”

• In its first year, the Space Force transferred personnel and commissioned cadets to the service; published doctrine and set up monitoring systems to track space debris; fleshed out training and submitted recommendations to Congress about how to update the space acquisition process. “This second year is all about integration and integrating this force,” Raymond said. “It’s driving the car that we built.” Space Force is ready to move on to bolstering behavioral norms with international allies and launching more assets into space.

• Space Force’s structure allows it to work with industry to leverage technology innovation while saving money. Earlier this year, Space Force established ‘SpaceWERX’, a technology accelerator program that works with companies in the space industry. “As we design that force, we want to design it in a way that capitalizes on this new business model that has emerged, that produces satellites off of a production line, rather than the one-off, handmade wooden shoe that takes years and years and years to build,” Raymond said.

• International exercises and wargames have helped the service foster these norms in the past year. Strengthening norms of behavior for space operations alongside international partners will improve safety, Raymond said. Norms don’t prevent bad behavior but they draw attention to countries or companies operating in a dangerous way. “We’ve made some really good strides and we operate to demonstrate that good behavior,” said Raymond. “We want to build this coalition friendly from the beginning to allow our international partners to invest.”

• Meanwhile, Raymond noted that the “explosion” of the space industry and international space activity has created new problems in ‘space debris’ or ‘space junk’. There are thousands of pieces of debris in addition to the thousands of satellites in low-Earth orbit, creating the danger of collision. “If the space domain is something we all care about, then inventing some innovative way to get the debris out of space could be something very useful for the future,” Raymond said. Improving engineering and launch standards will help to prevent more debris buildup. International partners can also monitor space and warn each other about potentially dangerous debris.

 

This year, the Space Force will prioritize collaboration with the commercial space industry and partners around the world, the

           General John “Jay” Raymond

service’s chief of operations said Feb. 25.

These types of partnerships have and will continue to allow the United States to lead the world in space, Gen. John “Jay” Raymond said at the Air Force Association’s Virtual Aerospace Warfare Symposium. The service — the newest branch of the military — was stood up 14 months ago.

In its first year, the Space Force transferred personnel and commissioned cadets to the service. It also published doctrine and set up monitoring systems to track space debris, among other capabilities. The service also fleshed out training for its new personnel and submitted recommendations to Congress about how to update the space acquisition process.

“This second year is all about integration and integrating this force,” Raymond said. “It’s driving the car that we built.”

Now, the service is ready to move on to bolstering behavioral norms with international allies and launching more assets into space. Because the commercial industry has lowered the barriers to space, almost all Space Force missions can be commercially viable with smaller, more operationally relevant satellites, he said.

                            Space Junk

“We want to build a very fused connection with commercial industry,” he said.

The service’s structure should allow it to work with industry to leverage technology innovation while saving money, he noted.

“As we design that force, we want to design it in a way that capitalizes on this new business model that has emerged, that produces satellites off of a production line, rather than the one-off, handmade wooden shoe that takes years and years and years to build,” Raymond said.

Earlier this year, the service established SpaceWERX, a technology accelerator program that works with companies in the space industry. The technology areas of focus for the program will be announced in coming weeks.

The service will also grow partnerships with allies this year, Raymond noted. Strengthening norms of behavior for space operations alongside international partners will improve safety, he said.

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Space Force Graduates First Candidates of Space Intelligence Program

Article by 1st Lt. Tyler Whiting                                  July 23, 2020                                 (spaceforce.mil)

• June 23rd, the Space Force Intelligence Intern Program (SIIP) graduated its first two interns, Capt. Rebecca Bosworth and Capt. Devin Hightower (the two standing to the right in the photo above). The two graduating interns spent two years working alongside and learning from some of the most experienced intelligence personnel in the space community. The graduates then briefed Chief of Space Operations, General John “Jay” Raymond, his senior leadership, and the Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance for the U.S. Air Force.

• The Space Force Intelligence Intern Program was created in 2018 after recognizing there was no in-depth training for intelligence professionals to address the rising threats in the space domain. “The program itself went from inception to execution in less than five months,” said spokesperson Col. Suzy Streeter. “… and they surpassed all expectations. Both were game-changers for space operations and the intelligence community.”

• Intelligence support has historically been provided through small intelligence elements responsible for numerous programs. But the SIIP program interns were embedded directly with the team responsible for test and development of a new system, which improved their ability to provide intelligence support to the program. “The best advice is to be creative, always keep the problem in mind, and to always find a way over obstacles that will inevitably arise,” said Hightower.

• Both graduates will be assigned to the Space Security and Defense Program’s Threat Assessment Division, and have volunteered to join the US Space Force once the transfer window opens. “Originally we became a part of this program to develop ourselves into leaders to improve space intelligence in the Air Force. Now, we are helping to lay some of the groundwork for a new branch of the DoD,” said Hightower. “The best part of the transition to the USSF is that the vision is constantly evolving.”

• Two new interns will be added to the program each year. The program itself will continue to evolve based on feedback from graduating participants to improve and formalize intelligence support to space operations needed to ensure the U.S. continued superiority and ability fight and win in a conflict, should it extend to space.

 

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. — The new U.S. Space Force Intelligence Intern Program graduated its first cohort on June 23, 2020, preparing them to succeed in future space intelligence leadership roles. The two graduating interns had an opportunity to out-brief the Chief of Space Operations, General John “Jay” Raymond, his senior leadership, and the Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, headquarters U.S. Air Force.

The Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Directorate at Headquarters, USSF (formerly Air Force Space Command) and the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Cyber Effects Operations at Headquarters U.S. Air Force stood up the SIIP in July 2018, after recognizing there was no in-depth training for intelligence professionals to address the rising threats in the space domain.

The SIIP is designed to build a foundational knowledge of space intelligence for its participants. Interns spend two years working alongside and learning from some of the most experienced intelligence personnel in the space community.

The SIIP placed two company grade officers in its inaugural cohort: Capt. Rebecca Bosworth and Capt. Devin Hightower – in the Space Security and Defense Program’s Threat Assessment Division, where they worked on real-world, experiential projects concerning space threats, trends and how they affect U.S. space assets.

For two years, Bosworth and Hightower have been growing their experience as intelligence professionals in the space domain, improving the USSF’s ability to effectively integrate and action ISR data in support of the services mission to protect U.S. and allied interest in space.

“The program itself went from inception to execution in less than five months so there wasn’t much time to create expectations or structure,” said Col. Suzy Streeter, director of ISR at HQ, USSF. “Nonetheless, I had full confidence in their abilities to roll with whatever came their way and they surpassed all expectations. Both were game-changers for space operations and the intelligence community.”

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The Ripple Effects of a Military Space Skirmish

Article by Ramin Skibba and Undark                                July 12, 2020                              (theatlantic.com)

• On April 22, with the successful launch of a military reconnaissance satellite, Iran joined a growing list of nations having weapons and military systems in orbit. In April, Russia tested a missile program designed to destroy satellites, and in March 2019, India launched an anti-satellite weapon. Many more countries now have space programs, including Iran, North Korea, France, Japan, and Israel.

• Two think-tanks, e.g.: the Secure World Foundation in Broomfield, Colorado, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., both released reports this year (see SWF report here; see CSIS report here) pointing to an increase in countries deploying satellite-destroying weaponry and disruptive technologies that could put all peaceful activities in space at risk. Many of these technologies could ratchet up an arms race or spark an actual skirmish in space.

• “What worries us in the international community is that there aren’t necessarily any guardrails for how people are going to start interfering with others’ space systems,” said Daniel Porras, a space security fellow at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research in Geneva.

• Thousands of satellites already circle low-Earth orbit (below an altitude of 1,200 miles) to provide key services such as internet access, GPS signals, long-distance communications, and weather information. More than half of those satellites are from the U.S., and most of the rest are from China and Russia. Any missile that smashes into a satellite would disperse thousands of bits of debris. “If you create debris, it might just as well come back and hit one of your own satellites,” says David Burbach, a national security affairs expert at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. “So I think we’re pretty unlikely to see countries actually use those capabilities.”

• When China conducted an anti-satellite missile test in 2007, it created a massive cloud of space junk that drew international condemnation. India’s engineers tried to limit debris from their recent test by conducting it at a low altitude, so that Earth’s gravity would pull the pieces down and they would burn up on descent. But some pieces were flung up to the International Space Station’s orbit. There were no collisions; as of February, only 15 trackable pieces of debris remained in orbit.

• A number of countries are developing new military technologies for space. France is working on laser beams that could dazzle another country’s satellite, preventing it from taking pictures of classified targets. North Korea is studying how to jam radio frequency signals sent to or from a satellite. And Iran is devising cyberattacks that could interfere with satellite systems. Meanwhile, the big three space heavyweights – the U.S., Russia, and China – are already capable of all three approaches, according to the SWF report.

• The big three have also begun to develop satellites that can be used as surveillance devices or weapons. A satellite could maneuver within miles of a rival’s classified satellite, snap photos of equipment and transmit the pictures down to Earth. Or the satellite could sidle up to another and spray its counterpart’s lenses or cover its solar panels, cutting off power and rendering it useless. Russia may be ahead with this technology. Last fall, Space Force General John “Jay” Raymond accused Russia of deploying a satellite near a U.S. spy satellite, which he called a “potentially threatening behavior.”

• The SWF report notes that an incident or misunderstanding could escalate tensions if it’s perceived as an attack. With the new Space Force, the U.S. Defense Department seeks to “strengthen deterrence” and improve capabilities to “defend our vital assets in space,” says Space Force spokesperson Christina Hoggatt. The U.S. military will focus on making satellites more resilient to attack, however, rather than developing offensive weapons, said Hoggatt.

• Tense regional relationships could be particularly unpredictable. For example, if North Korean leaders found themselves in a standoff with South Korea and the U.S., they might launch and detonate a nuclear weapon in space where the radiation would disable most satellites. The U.N. and other international groups – including SWF and the Outer Space Institute, a global research organization based in British Columbia – are working to avoid such scenarios.

• Existing international laws offer little guidance. While the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963 and the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 prohibit weapons of mass destruction in space, they don’t explicitly limit other kinds of space weapons, tests, or military space forces. So until non-interference rules involving space weaponry are hammered out, unexpected satellite tests will inevitably fuel speculation and paranoia.

 

On April 22, after several failed attempts, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced a successful launch of what it described as a military reconnaissance satellite. That satellite joined a growing list of weapons and military systems in orbit, including those from Russia (which in April tested a missile program designed to destroy satellites) and India (which launched an anti-satellite weapon in March 2019).

Experts like Brian Weeden, director of program planning at the Secure World Foundation (SWF), a nonpartisan think tank based in Broomfield, Colorado, worry that these developments—all confirmed by the newly rebranded United States Space Force—threaten to lift earthly conflicts to new heights and put all space activities, peaceful and military alike, at risk. Researchers at SWF and at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C., both released reports this year on the rapidly evolving state of affairs. The reports suggest that the biggest players in space have upgraded their military abilities, including satellite-destroying weapons and technologies that disrupt spacecraft, by, for instance, blocking data collection or transmission.

Many of these technologies, if deployed, could ratchet up an arms race and even spark a skirmish in space, the SWF and CSIS researchers caution. Blowing up a single satellite scatters debris throughout the atmosphere, said Weeden, co-editor of the SWF report. Such an explosion could hurl projectiles in the paths of other spacecraft and threaten the accessibility of space for everyone.

“Those are absolutely the two best reports to be looking at to get a sense of what’s going on in the space community,” said David Burbach, a national security affairs expert at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, who was not involved in the new research.

Today, Burbach added, the world is very different compared with the Cold War era, when access to space was essentially limited to the United States and the Soviet Union. Many more countries now have space programs, including India, Iran, North Korea, France, Japan, and Israel.

Despite this expansion—and the array of new space weapons—relevant policies and regulatory bodies have remained stagnant. “What worries us in the international community is that there aren’t necessarily any guardrails for how people are going to start interfering with others’ space systems,” said Daniel Porras, a space security fellow at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research in Geneva. “There are no rules of engagement.”

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Over 8,500 Airmen Volunteer to Join U.S. Space Force

Article by Sandra Erwin                           June 9, 2020                          (spacenews.com)

• On June 9th, The U.S. Space Force announced that more than 8,500 active-duty airmen applied to join the new military branch. Applicants include a mix of officers and enlisted personnel from 13 career fields. It was anticipated that only about 7,000 would give up their commission in the Air Force and transfer to the U.S. Space Force. The Space Force is reviewing transfer applications and expects that approximately 6,000 of the 8,500 will be selected for transfer.

• The response reflects the enthusiasm in the ranks about the opportunity to serve in the newest branch of the military. These men and women “made the bold decision to volunteer to join the U.S. Space Force and defend the ultimate high ground,” said chief of space operations General John “Jay” Raymond. Approximately 16,000 military and civilians from the former U.S. Air Force Space Command are now assigned to Space Force.

• Transfers to the Space Force will begin September 1st. For volunteers from other career fields, evaluation panels known as “transfer boards” will be scheduled between July and November, with transfers expected by February 2021.

 

WASHINGTON — More than 8,500 active-duty airmen applied to join the U.S. Space Force during the month of May, the service announced on June 9.
Applicants include a mix of officers and enlisted personnel from 13 career fields.

   President Trump and General Raymond

The number of applicants is larger than what the Space Force had projected. Officials said they were anticipating about 7,000 would volunteer to give up their commission in the Air Force and transfer to the U.S. Space Force.

The response reflects the enthusiasm in the ranks about the opportunity to serve in the newest branch of the military, said Gen. John “Jay” Raymond, chief of space operations of the U.S. Space Force. These men and women “made the bold decision to volunteer to join the U.S. Space Force and defend the ultimate high ground,” he said in a statement.

Approximately 16,000 military and civilians from the former U.S. Air Force Space Command are now assigned to the Space Force. The transfer process will officially commission or enlist military members into the Space Force.

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People Are Convinced of a UFO Crash in Brazil

Article by Brit Dawson                           May 22, 2020                             (dazeddigital.com)

• Thousands of residents in the municipality of Magé, just north of Rio de Janeiro, reported seeing glowing lights in the sky on Wednesday (May 20), with many uploading videos to Reddit and Twitter. The clips appear to show a flashing, circular orange light moving through the night sky.

• According to Brazilian news site UOL, the local authorities and the Brazilian Air Force have no records about any UFOs seen on Wednesday. But the conspiracy about a cover-up was gaining even more traction, newly fueled by a Google Maps link showing a white (glowing) UFO-shape covering Magé. “What people are seeing in the imagery is a reflection that’s temporarily overloading the satellite’s sensor,” said a Google spokesperson. “Essentially, the sun reflected off the surface of that building just at the right angle to briefly blind the satellite. This is a pretty common phenomenon known as saturation or blooming.”

[Editor’s Note]   This article is about a glowing orange orb moving through the night sky in Magé, Brazil on May 20th. Could it be a rescue party looking for the red orb that was shot down near Magé on May 12th with three “humanoid” occupants?

The city of Magé is in the state of Rio DeJaneiro, just north of the city of Rio DeJaneiro on the southern coast of Brazil. In her ‘Earthfiles’ YouTube posting of May 27th, Linda Moulton Howe reported on the “high strangeness” going on in Magé. (see video below)

According to Linda Moulton Howe, U.S. military satellites detected unexplained aerial phenomenon along the Brazilian coast on April 20th. On April 21st the U.S. DoD advised the Ministry of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Brazil to intensify the air patrol in the vicinity of Rio DeJaneiro due to UFO activity there. On May 1st, Brazilian radar detected UFO activity in the state of Rio DeJeneiro. They had zeroed in on this area when the incident of May 12th occurred.

In the early hours of May 12th, local residents of Magé heard the sound of helicopters. When they went outside, they saw in the night sky two helicopters chasing a red orb darting around over the city. Soon, two more helicopters joined the chase and managed to shoot down this glowing red UFO. The next two days, May 12th & 13th, the military cordoned off the area of the woods where the UFO was shot down. Aircraft were constantly circling over the crash zone.

The Brazilian military informed the U.S. military that a UFO was downed in the woods near Magé. U.S. Space Force General John ‘Jay’ Raymond deployed 20 Special Forces military personnel to the woods north of Magé. The U.S. Special Forces arrived at the crash site In the early morning hours of May 13th. They verified that the object was a damaged UFO craft with three humanoid occupants. Apparently, one of the occupants, about 6’-6” tall, ran away. The Special Forces tracked the humanoid being down and killed it with an energy weapon. The other two occupants were taken alive. On May 14th, the beings and their “displacement devices” were transported to an unknown U.S. base.

 

image referred to in article of a Google map image showing a white glowing object

It’s safe to say the internet is obsessed with aliens and UFOs. Last year, a plan to storm Area 51 – because “they can’t stop all of us” – attracted millions of attendees on Facebook, even leading to a spike in searches for alien porn (OK?). While just last month, alien enthusiasts lost their shit over the Pentagon’s release of declassified UFO videos. Now, these fanatics have a new mystery on their hands: a supposed UFO crash in Brazil.

Thousands of residents in the municipality of Magé, just north of Rio de Janeiro, reported seeing glowing lights in the sky on Wednesday (May 20), with many uploading videos to Reddit and Twitter. The clips appear to show a flashing, circular orange light moving through the night sky. There’s also a video which supposedly shows the UFO on Earth, but which looks very suspiciously like a colander.

As reported by VICE, shortly after #MageUFO began trending on Twitter, the hashtag disappeared, leading enthusiasts to suspect foul play. Over on the r/UFOs Reddit page, posts about the Brazilian UFO also seemed to vanish.

1:03 hour video of Linda Moulton Howe describing the UFO shot down in Brazil (‘Earthfiles’ YouTube)

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Space Force: What Will the Newest Military Branch Actually Do?

 

Article by Leonard David                             February 9, 2020                                (space.com)

• In December 2019, President Trump established the Space Force as a separate military branch. Space Force’s first chief of space operations, General John “Jay” Raymond, says that the new branch will be a “technology-focused service.” Officially, Space Force is designed to help protect the interests of the United States in space, deter aggression in the final frontier, and conduct prompt and sustained space operations.

• This effort was sparked by the increasing space ambitions of multiple countries, especially China and Russia. Last month, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said, “It’s just been recently that both China and Russia pushed us to the point where (space has) now become a warfighting domain.” “It’s important not just to our security, but to our commerce, our way of life… that we’re prepared to defend ourselves and preserve space.”

• Joan Johnson-Freese, a professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, believes that a ‘flippant remark’ made by Trump in a March 2018 speech led to a Space Force to support (the US Air Force’s) Space Command. “Whether it will evolve into an organization that solves any of the problems that prompted it remains to be seen,” said Johnson-Freese. “It certainly increases the perception that the U.S. is leading the way on the weaponization of space.”

• Theresa Hitchens, the space and air reporter at the online magazine Breaking Defense and a former senior research associate at the University of Maryland’s Center for International and Security Studies, and former director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research in Geneva, wonders whether the Air Force and DoD will accelerate the fielding of new military space capabilities necessary to ensure U.S. technological and military advantages in space, as Congressionally mandated in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act. In response to this Act, the Space Development Agency was moved to the Space Force. Hitchens says that the DoD is implementing these changes slowly to make Congress back off. Hitchens also wonders whether other military branches will contribute personnel to the Space Force, “or are we talking simply about a renaming of Air Force Space Command where nothing changes except the uniforms and patches, wasting taxpayer dollars?”

• Laura Grego, a senior scientist in the Global Security Program of the Union of Concerned Scientists in Cambridge, Massachusetts, thinks it may be easy to dismiss the Space Force as a vanity project because of the name. Grego thinks that the Space Force may prompt a space arms race that would threaten satellites, not protect them. “[I]t …organizes military space around deterring and responding to aggression.” Therefore, “there is a bureaucratic incentive to hype the threat and then build weapons to counter that threat.” Grego notes, “There is no commensurate effort from the State Department to shape the space environment to be more stable and peaceful, which would certainly benefit both military and civil space users.”

• Mark Gubrud, a physicist and adjunct professor in Peace, War and Defense at the University of North Carolina, says, “The existence of a Space Force implies the potential use of force in space… [t]hat is, having space weapons.” “[E]verybody assumes that a Space Force is going to be an armed force,” defending future asteroid-mining operations, moon bases and sundry fantasies. The U.S., China and Russia have been drifting toward a space arms race, because even unarmed satellites participate in military surveillance, targeting, communications and other war-fighting functions. Gubrud asks, “[W]ill we continue this course toward destabilization and nuclear war?” “[O]r will we renew our pursuit of arms control, disarmament, and the vision of a world free from this terrible danger?”

• Peter Martinez, executive director of the Colorado-based Secure World Foundation focuses on the underlying factors in the Space Force as they pertain to the stability of the space environment and the safety and sustainability of space activities. “[S]pace is already a domain dominated by civilian and commercial actors,” Martinez said, “so the new space race is really… among civilian commercial rivals to access an increasingly congested and contested domain.” Martinez notes the proliferation of “counterspace” activities. This leads to a narrative of the “inevitability” of armed conflict in outer space that could become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

• The Space Force debate was initially about whether to establish the new branch at all, Martinez said. Now that it is established, the debate is about what such a Space Force will look like. “To date, what we have seen is mostly a reorganization of already existing activities, with nothing fundamentally new or additional. It remains to be seen how this Space Force will develop in the future and what its rules of engagement will be,” says Martinez. “[W]e would much prefer to see space preserved as a domain for peaceful use and exploration, for the benefit of all nations.” “But this will only happen if these developments are complemented by diplomatic efforts to communicate these messages to the international community to avoid mistrust based on misperceptions and misunderstandings of U.S. intentions in outer space.”

 

    General John “Jay” Raymond

The Trump administration established the Space Force as a separate military branch in December 2019.

  Secretary of Defense Mark Esper

Since then, America’s Space Force has gotten its own official “Star Trek”-esque seal, with a logo being developed. Recently unveiled was a traditional camouflage uniform adorned with a blue “U.S. Space Force” nameplate on the chest and a full-color flag on the left arm.

Furthermore, the first official “space guy” has been formally sworn in. Gen. John “Jay” Raymond is the Space Force’s first chief of space operations and has said that the new branch will be a “technology-focused service.”

Sparking all of this activity are the increasing space ambitions and capabilities of multiple countries, especially China and Russia, U.S. officials have said. The Space Force is designed to help protect the interests of the United States in space, deter aggression in the final frontier and conduct prompt and sustained space operations.

    Joan Johnson-Freese

As U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper noted last month, nations have been in space for many, many years. “It’s just been recently that both China and Russia pushed us to the point where it now became a warfighting domain,” Esper said during a Jan. 27 news conference.

As a result, Esper said, the United States has established the Space Command and just recently, Space Force, “to make sure that we can preserve space as a global commons,” he stressed. “It’s important not just to our security, but to our commerce, our way of life, our understanding of the planet, weather, you name it. So it’s very important that we — we now treat it that way and make sure that we’re prepared to defend ourselves and preserve space.”

             Laura Grego

What next for the Space Force?

Space.com asked a variety of experts in space policy about the practicalities, pathways and potential pitfalls ahead for the U.S. Space Force.
“Congress took a seemingly flippant remark and created a rational implementation plan, a Space Force to support Space Command,” said Joan Johnson-Freese, a professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, referring to a comment President Donald Trump made during a speech in March 2018. (Her views do not necessarily represent those of the Naval War College, the Department of Defense or the U.S. government.)

“Whether it will evolve into an organization that solves any of the problems that prompted it remains to be seen,” Johnson-Freese told Space.com. “On the negative side, it certainly increases the perception that the U.S. is leading the way on the weaponization of space.”

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