It sounds like a Sci-Fi movie, but it happened yesterday at the White House. President stated at the meeting of the National Space Council that he was directing the Department of Defense in creating a sixth branch of the military called “Space Force.”
The meeting was scheduled for 11:30 a.m. EDT, but it started 45 minutes late. President Trump opened the meeting with a few remarks including employment numbers, immigration, and other topics. Then, he announced that the Pentagon would be directed to create a new branch of the military:
“Our destiny beyond the Earth is not only a matter of national identity but a matter of national security.”
At the moment, the Air Force Space Command oversees many of the US space launches. In the past, the military was involved in the space ventures of the Americans, helping with the development of the early rockets. The first astronauts were military pilots and many members of NASA now start in the military, as pilots and engineers.
Earlier this year, in March, Trump spoke about creating a Space Force, but he didn’t say too much about it, or how it would look like:
“We have the Air Force, we’ll have the space force.”
The Outer Space Treaty will not suffer, as it was intended to prevent conflict in the space exploration, but the members agreed not to use nuclear weapons or weapons of mass destruction in space. In 2014, the U.S. didn’t sign the treaty that prohibited extraterrestrial weapons.
Fast forward, last year, the Pentagon opposed a house bill and didn’t want to create a ‘Space Corps,’ as it would mean an increase in bureaucracy. They accepted to have a new, spate branch. Trump’s statement said that the Space Force and Air Force would be separate branches, but equal.
The new service branch is the first one in 71 years. The Air Force is the last one, which was added a little while after WWII.
How will the new military branch fit into the space exploration efforts? We can only wait and see.
Doris’s passion for writing started to take shape in college where she was editor-in-chief of the college newspaper. Even though she ended up working in IT for more than 7 years, she’s now back to what he always enjoyed doing. With a true passion for technology, Doris mostly covers tech-related topics.