Space Force Wants All Of NASA's Stuff
The sky is not the limit … #SemperSupra!pic.twitter.com/HKlBiAJLBB
— Gen. Jay Raymond (@SpaceForceCSO) October 30, 2020
Keith’s note: This is a nicely done video. One small problem: most of it shows military people from the Space Force doing the things that NASA is supposed to be doing – like going to the Moon and Mars – in SLS/Orion hardware. They also a space station-derived interplanetary vehicle with a large centrifuge like they depicted in “The Martian”.
“Its time for another giant leap … we’re getting ready for the 22nd century” they say, dramatically. They also talk about “the dark side of the Moon”. (sigh) So much for paying attention in Astronomy class at Starfleet Academy. They end this video with “The sky Is not the limit” – as if they are making all the calls on where to go and what to do in space.
Its nice that they want to protect NASA. Thanks guys. But the Trump Administration is now increasingly using the Space Force to set America’s agenda in space in a somewhat deliberate, confrontational way i.e. “Make Space Great Again” while NASA often sits in the back seat with its calm, scientific memes. That’s not the way it is supposed to be. Space is already great and NASA has always led America’s space efforts – and set the pace for the rest of the world. Its time to fix this bad marketing plan.
I recently had to explain to my father-in-law that 1.) The Space Force is not in charge of NASA, in fact that is forbidden by law. 2.) NASA isn’t getting more money because of the creation of the Space Force.
How long until the law is changed?…maybe because NASA is deemed “redundant” to what Space Force does & starts doing.
Or vice versa.
Frankly, it is unlikely that Space Force OR NASA is going to get to the Moon or even cis-lunar space via SLS/Orion. Even it that does happen, it is highly likely that Space Force will come up with its own launch vehicles/spacecraft/lunar landers…probably buying them from SpaceX and/or Blue Origin.
Space Force won’t “take over” NASA than Air Force Mobility Command has “taken over” the commercial airlines! In point of fact, in the event of a national emergency, the airlines would be called upon to augment the Air Force’s capabilities.
With the Chinese’s manned space program with the objective being the Moon, we may be very lucky to have USSF to defend our interests.
They are already talking to SpaceX about logistics with Starship.
I had the impression that was more Air Mobility Command looking at point-to-point delivery.
No, it’s also Space Force.
The Space Development Agency is also working with Sierra Nevada Corp. on turning Dream Chaser’s Shooting Star logistics module into a crew-optional cislunar platform, and SNC is also working on the LIFE inflatable habitat.
Although there was a brief mention of support to the USSF, this article makes it clear that it is a US Transportation Command initiative. https://www.airforcemag.com…
yes . logistics.. not flying to the moon
“most of it shows military people from the Space Force doing the things that NASA is supposed to be doing – like going to the Moon and Mars – in SLS/Orion hardware”
What has been the historical roles of militaries when new frontiers and the new frontier’s resources are discovered and begin to be exploited?
Didn’t military bases almost lead the way? It really should be no surprise that with the trillions of dollars in resources laying unclaimed on Luna will never see a military presence.
No doubt someone more precisely informed will correct me: the US is littered with remnant military bases established in the late 19th; based on my understanding of history, these ‘forts’ were in place to protect the interests of an expanding populace, partly from native resistance, but partly from meddling by France, Britain, and Spain. Bases were established to project authority and protect assets.
Nowadays, America behaves globally as she did in the 19th century, establishing bulkheads of various sorts, all with the singular ambition: projecting American interests by projecting American power. Put another way: preserving the peace for lots of reasons, not the least of which is simple: profits. I am not saying this is a bad thing, by the way.
Space? From time to time, someone hereabouts will wonder why we are expanding into space; or more properly, if we even should be doing such a thing. Is space exploration analogous to the American westward push?
My thinking: ‘manifest destiny’ was never a popular notion in the sense of informing national policy in a unified and consistent way. Isn’t this how our space policy can be characterized? Isn’t there a sort of popular acceptance that, yes, “when it is convenient and profitable we shall go to space, and what of it?”
So. Lewis and Clark will proceed. They will be followed, slowly, by small groups. At some point it will become clear that these private assets require protection.
And so it goes, to coin another phrase.
And, now I think I’ll go to bed…
I think what you’re describing is more or less what happened in Canada, with forts and infrastructure (railroads) preceding settlement in the west. In what’s now the United States, it went the other way. People moved in, or moved through, on their own. Occasionally illegally, for example in the Black Hills, and the military following when the settlers got themselves into trouble. But I don’t think that’s relevant to space, since there aren’t any locals for people to get into trouble with. New France might be a better analogy. Cities like Quebec and New Orleans were originally established as forts to control trade entering the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi. That is, to make sure France had access and other European countries did not (unless they paid import/export duties…)
When Biden gets elected he’ll put the cabash on this Trump campaign talking point.
Actually, no he won’t. Remember, Congress has wanted this for two decades.
https://www.politico.com/ne…
Hey, even scientists refer to “dark” things as “stuff we don’t understand” so for the space force “dark side of the moon” fits.
Just two more days and Trump will stop talking about space and Biden will forget about it.
Republican President Eisenhower established NASA in Oct 1958 as the civilian space agency responsible for U.S. human spaceflight to specifically prevent the U.S. military from militarizing outer space with star troopers, battle platforms in LEO, and missile bases on the Moon.
Now the Republican Trump administration’s Space Force is trying to encroach on NASA’s turf and to get SpaceX involved in this escalation of tensions with Russian and China.
Elon has no need to get involved with Space force and thereby upset and divert his plans and timetable for Starship development and for civilians on the Moon and Mars. Space Force is the camel’s nose.
That’s not really an accurate description of President Eisenhower’s goals or intentions. He wanted the idea of overflights (spy satellites) to be internationally accepted. If the first satellite in orbit had been an American, _military_ satellite, the Soviets would never have accepted that. He wanted the American space program to be led by a _civilian_ agency, so no one could claim he was trying to “militarize space” (to use the modern phrase) even though he was all for military spy satellites.
Eisenhower moved von Braun’s organization from U.S. Army control to NASA with the mandate to develop launch vehicles for manned spaceflight. He moved the F-1 engine and the Centaur hydrolox upper stage from the Air Force to NASA control to power those launch vehicles.
Neil McElroy, Ike’s defense secretary, shut down the Air Force plans for a manned lunar missile base operated by military astronauts. Ike terminated the USAF “Man In Space Soonest” (MISS), the planned first phase of the lunar missile base.
The Space Systems Division (SSD) of the Air Force Systems Command started a classified program in 1958 called “LUNEX” for “lunar exploration”. It was a cover for the eventual development of a military lunar base. This program had no support from Eisenhower and Kennedy shut it down in 1961 with the announcement that NASA would manage the Apollo program.
And the absorption continues:
NASA astronaut Michael Hopkins, a U.S. Air Force colonel and the commander of the upcoming SpaceX Crew Dragon mission, is transferring to the U.S. Space Force and is expected to be commissioned aboard the International Space Station.
“If all goes well, we’re looking to swear him into the Space Force from the International Space Station,” said Gen. John “Jay” Raymond, chief of space operations of the U.S. Space Force.
“There’s no such thing as a day without space operations, you just don’t see them.” A very true and on-point reason to support a focused space effort….Towards the second half of the video I got a bit tired of the “space is the best highest” hyperbole, but overall this is a great recruitment video for those thinking about career possibilities and maybe going into the armed services.