A new AFSPC study posits a possible future — named after ancient Chinese warlord Zhang He — where China dominates space even as human presence vastly expands to the Moon and beyond.

If the new Acting Secretary of the Air Force, Matt Donovan, is looking for someone who can “unleash the power of space’ he should look to the bold leadership of Steve Kwast and recommend his nomination to be the first Space Force Commander.

Hyten is not just one of the nation’s 40 active-duty four-star officers, already an elite club with fewer members than a single NFL football team. He is also the the leader of the space community and the advocate-in-chief for space specialists’ careers.

French Defense Minister Florence Parley says she has been exploring with French defense giant Thales concepts for what she called “fearsome little detectors” that “will be the eyes of our most valuable satellites.”

LinQuest in April began work under a $9.2 million, sole-source contract to “hold the planks for the stand-up” of SPACECOM, working directly with Gen. Raymond and its joint staff directorates.

“We anticipate that adversary nations are unlikely to discriminate between U.S. military satellites and commercial satellites providing services to the U.S. Government, in the event of a conflict,” Defense Secretary nominee Mark Esper told the Senate during his confirmation hearing.

Missing in the national security space conversation, says Aerospace Corporation’s Russ Rumbaugh, is how space operations can and should fit with diplomacy and foreign policy. Instead, he said, the debate is solely about “how do I win the war I see.” 

“Today, the House passed H.R. 2500, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2020 by a vote of 220 to 197, without the support of a single Republican.”

The Trump Administration argues the HASC’s cuts to the defense policy bill would hamper missile detection and defense priorities.

Senate language on the Space Force leaves open the chance that a new administration could walk it back to merely changing the name of Air Force Space Command, says CSIS’s Kaitlyn Johnson.