What do you think? Is this really going to happen??
Is what going to happen?
I’m certain in the US Space Force there will be latrines that need to be cleaned and linoleum floors that need to be buffed.
Will there be a Space Force Academy with Space Cadets?
Like there’s some DIRE SHORTAGE of qualified astronauts!
There’s thousands of people who have the qualifications! And only the tiniest fraction of those will ever fly. Why crowd the pool even more? They just keep sending the same guys, anyway, as the #1 qualification for astronauts seems to be “has already been an astronaut”!
Like there’s some DIRE SHORTAGE of qualified astronauts!
There’s thousands of people who have the qualifications! And only the tiniest fraction of those will ever fly. Why crowd the pool even more? They just keep sending the same guys, anyway, as the #1 qualification for astronauts seems to be “has already been an astronaut”!
What will the Space Force do? The US already has ballistic missiles that can reach anywhere in the world in 30 minutes. Are we going to have a crew in space that will be first responders (even though they would be slower than most other forms of response). I have tried looking this up. I have no idea what their purpose would be. Killing other satellites?
Space Force is essentially the Air Force Space Command spun off into a more independent branch. They launch and operate military satellites, and track satellites from other countries. They operate GPS, communications satellites, and the military’s surveillance and weather satellites. AFAIK there’s nothing about actually putting weapons in space, nor shooting down enemy satellites (current ASAT capability in the US is within the Navy, with ship-launched missiles).
At the risk of dipping too far into politics, if it weren’t for Trump’s incoherent remarks on Space Force, and everyone’s reaction to those remarks, the creation of Space Force would be virtually unnoticed by everyone but a few military wonks and space geeks.
As to the recruiting ads, clearly the new branch will need personnel, but I wonder if there will be a lot of interested recruits that will be disappointed to learn that their job will be 99% sitting at a desk. No astronauts need apply.
What?
For now, they’re doing the exact same thing that the US Air Force Space Command did, which as far as I can tell currently constitutes the entire Space Force service.
It would never have been created in the first place without Trump blathering about pre-pubescent fantasies of space dudes going pew pew pew with laser guns.
The Air Force Space Command was already doing everything that the Space Force is supposed to do. And unlike the Marines or the Air Force there was no pressing need to separate them from their parent organization. The entire Space Force consists of ~16,000 people from former Air Force commands. For reference, the next-smallest military service, the Marine Corps, has over 180,000 active-duty personnel.
It’s not all fantasy. Both USA and Russia are preparing for Satellite to Satellite combat. It’ll probably be more Robot Wars than Star Wars though.
Sure, but I think the reality of SPACE WARFARE! will be threatening to shoot down satellites from the ground. I suppose there might be some kind of secret hunter-killer satellites, but the reality of orbital mechanics means that once a satellite is in orbit it will only be able to intercept a tiny fraction of other satellites in nearby orbits. (Geosynchronous orbit might be the only place where one satellite can threaten lots of others.)
Might as well keep your interceptors on the ground, ready to hit whichever satellite you want to target.
And on the other end of things, there’s not much a satellite can do to avoid an interceptor. So for defense, all Space Force can do is make sure there’s redundancy for really critical satellites.
Finally, SPACE WARFARE! is only possible between a handful of world powers, so short of World War 3 we’re only going to see posturing and deterrence.
Heck, one more data point – Coast Guard: 40,000 regulars.