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Not to be out done but French President Emmanuel Macron announces creation of French space force
Get the remaining ISS partners in on this and protect all of the worlds right to go....
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Another space partner sees the light as Japan to Create Military Space Unit to Catch Up With Rivals to create a military space unit of the country's Self-Defence Forces in 2020 in connection with the increased use of space for defense purposes by other countries, including the United States, Russia and China....
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Another step closer With Congressional Blessing, Space Force Is Closer To Launch
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Why the Space Corps needs to use naval rank (Space Review)
Particularly if/when they start having people in space. Space isn't an ocean, but does require people to spend months at a time in technologically advanced vessels that protect them from the hostile environment outside.
As I've said before, though, we need a Space Guard more than a Space Force. Something capable of inspecting satellites, providing on-orbit assistance to stations, monitoring traffic and intercepting when necessary...
Use what is abundant and build to last
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For Terraformer #54 ...
Bravo! Thanks for the link to that excellent article. I read all the way through to the comments, which included a reminder that Robert Heinlein was a naval officer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein
He was reported to be in favor of naval titles for the Space Force.
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I would agree with Terraformer's assesment that the nations of the world need to band together such that space access is protected and that space is not used for mass delivery of distruction to the peoples of earth.
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Space Council recommendations address exploration and management concerns in its sixth public meeting since being reconstituted two years ago.
NASA has not provided an updated schedule for the first SLS/Orion mission, Artemis 1, although contractors involved in the program said at an Aug. 19 conference that they now expect the launch to take place in early 2021, rather than 2020.
Why? There should not be anymore delays...
NASA has provided few details about what kind of long-term lunar presence it will have once it returns to the moon for short-duration stays in 2024.
Gee more heal dragging...
Take a lesson Nasa as
Elon Misk's roadster has made its way around the sun for its first orbit....
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In a visit to Japan recently, the NASA director argued for "space security".
He was in Japan to seek cooperation in pursuit of away-from-Earth exploration objectives.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/nasa-chief-s … 44685.html
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Trump did not put forth the concept to protect America's interests but one to keep others out which is just wrong.
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tahanson43206,
As I understand it, Space Force is initially tasked with doing what Air Force Space Command did so that the Air Force can re-focus on their traditional core competencies of tactical and strategic air superiority. For the military, space access is about providing sensor and communications coverage. As we rapidly progress towards interplanetary civilization in the 21st century, operations will eventually take place off-world and that is where a separate military branch will eventually become a vital part of our national security infrastructure. The threats that come from giant space rocks can end life on Earth as we know it, so that is another mission area that simply isn't part of the current thinking of a military organization primarily tasked with air superiority.
To that end, Space Force needs to establish an array of telescopes and communications satellites around our solar system to discover and respond to such threats before they become show-stopper events requiring massive levels of heretofore unseen international cooperation to come up with "Hail Mary" solutions. Let's say we do have a million people in a Mars colony and unfortunately for them, a giant space rock is on its way to wipe them out. It's not an Air Force problem. We never created our Air Force to fight giant space rocks. That said, there's still a massive problem to be addressed. Do we rely on someone else to come to their rescue or do we build the infrastructure now to create the tools and technologies to obliterate that thing before it sets human progress back another half century or more?
I would also prefer that the Air Force or Navy purchase the Stratolaunch aircraft to use as a technology testbed for the airborne aircraft carrier concept I put forward so that we can transform our military into a truly air mobile operation that can reach any part of the world in a matter of hours, rather than days or weeks, with substantial combat power. That's never going to happen as long as the Air Force and Navy have so many tens of billions of their budgets earmarked for space assets and launch services. The other objective I'd like to meet is a substantial reduction in the number of personnel required to maintain a credible defense, which is what an air mobile force would provide. It's obvious to me that the current force structure is meant to maintain the status quo, rather than effectively fight the next major war. Most of our aviation assets are either aging rapidly or are already obsolete in the face of modern integrated air defense systems. We need an entirely new generation of aviation technologies, which doesn't just mean stealth this / that / the other, useful as that suite of technologies is.
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Part of the farce is they are not making any ships and while these vehicles from space x and boeing as well as others could be used its time lines of service using them for there flights which will be problematic....
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SpaceNut,
Do you really want to pay for military-only spaceships when our private sector will build them on their own dime and then provide them to US DoD whenever they ask?
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New Space Force Chief sworn in at White House
Gen. John "Jay" Raymond as the new Chief of Space Operations
Raymond assumed the duties of the first head of the Space Force on December 20, 2019, when U.S. President Donald Trump signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act that officially launched the new force.
"The Space Force will help us deter aggression and control the ultimate high ground,"
The military's role in space has come under scrutiny because the U.S. is increasingly reliant on orbiting satellites that are difficult to protect. Satellites provide communications, navigation, intelligence and other services vital to the military and the national economy.
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US Space Force seeks civilians to join staff
They want individuals with the expertise, passion and vision to build the sixth branch of the Armed Forces as a lean, agile and focused military service.
Office of the Chief of Space Operations. Advertisements for the first 35 positions were posted last week, with a second wave of positions to follow soon.
Space Force job postings, visit www.airforce.USAjobs.gov and filter by agency "HQ US Space Force."
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For SpaceNut re topic ...
Here is an opinion piece about the United States Space Force by a retired Air Force general. It is longish but not TOO long.
The arguments FOR a robust space force should resonate with most contributing members of this forum.
https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/urgent-n … ace-force/
Steven L. Kwast is a retired Air Force general and former commander of the Air Education and Training Command at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph. A graduate of the United States Air Force Academy with a degree in astronautical engineering, he holds a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He is a past president of the Air Force’s Air University in Montgomery, Alabama, and a former fighter pilot with extensive combat and command experience. He is the author of the study, “Fast Space: Leveraging Ultra Low-Cost Space Access for 21st Century Challenges.”
Edit#1: Lt. General Kwast appeared on The Space Show February 14th.
Broadcast 3461 Lt. Gen. (RET) USAF Steven Kwast
The interview is available as a free mp3 download, or it may be played directly from thespaceshow.com
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Last edited by tahanson43206 (2020-02-19 10:49:14)
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For SpaceNut ...
The article at the link below appears to be reporting on a celestial land grab of truly cosmic proportions.
What it is more, it appears to show a possible rift between Mr Trump and Mr. Putin.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-trying … 00629.html
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tahanson43206,
That's not possible. Everyone knows President Trump is an agent of Russia and was elected by Russians and Russian sympathizers. It's all an elaborate ruse to make you think President Putin doesn't like President Trump. Meanwhile, comrade, there's very famous bridge I sell you in Moscow for very good price.
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He just wants to control the high ground from a military stand point that we are stronger than all others....
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SpaceNut,
That's true, but what's your point?
Should America fight from a position of disadvantage to make a war easier for our enemies?
Do you have any desire to experience a war from the position that the French were in throughout most of WWII, for example?
I much prefer maintaining complete dominance over the high ground, combined with superior training, superior numbers, and superior firepower. Invoking nuclear weapons isn't much of an argument if they never get used.
We may not be very good at counter-insurgency or nation building, but the singular time that the Russians attempted to attack our forces in Syria using a conventional military assault, they were slaughtered wholesale. That's why the people in the Middle East fight the way they do. Conventional military assaults are great at producing mass casualties for one or both sides, but that's about it.
Assured access to space is mainly about never losing that critical strategic and tactical force multiplier, but it also relates back to the reason that DARPA exists- to ensure that the United States shall never be taken by technological surprise.
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First launch since getting the new logo...
Space Force to launch X-37B space plane on secret mission
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Pentagon creates new office to oversee military space policy
The new position will be responsible for the “overall supervision of DoD policy for space warfighting” and for interagency coordination and international engagement on space policy and strategy, said Norquist’s memo. The assistant secretary for space policy reports to the undersecretary of defense for policy.
Top commander of U.S. space forces: Space should be peaceful, bad actors will be held accountable
The law specified that the military services “organize, train and equip” forces for use by the combatant commanders. Consequently, Raymond as the chief of the U.S. Space Force is responsible to recruit, train and equip units. But when these space forces are deployed in actual operations, they are under the command and control of U.S. Space Command.
Moon patrols could be a future reality for the U.S. military
U.S. military space activities today are confined to Earth orbit. That could change in the coming years as NASA begins to establish a permanent presence at the moon and works with the private sector to develop a cislunar economy. The military foresees playing a role protecting those interests if they were challenged by a foreign power.
The Space Force echoes that thinking in a doctrine document published in August, which says the service must prepare for a future when the moon and the volume of space around it could become the next military frontier.
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I have an old college buddy who is now in the Space Force. Not that it matters.
Years ago, decades really, I did some research on the Rods from God project the military has explored. It was a 60's concept for a non-nuclear space based kinetic kill vehicles. Project was scrapped as ambition exceeded budget and like all things, price to orbit was prohibitive.
But time has a way of solving some of those value proposition equations. You don't need hypersonic if you have on orbit, on demand, non nuclear nuclear equivalent ordnance with global strike capability in under 20 minutes.
A moon base is just a monitoring and reload logistics center for your on orbit assets in LEO and GEO, mostly as a secondary option in the event your earth based launch and monitoring capability is limited from low atmosphere EMP hits. But once it has gotten to that point, our modern day to day gets reset by 20-40 years depending on the scope of the fire/response. High ground is great military dogma until gravity and high energy particles start to play a role in how collateral damage is calculated. Just sayin, a bunch of egg heads said militarizing space was a bad idea for some very good resons.
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Nicely put as to being a less expensive on production on the moon for resupply of some goods but fuel and a 3-4 day from the moon to leo makes the return to the moon costly.
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