the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Washington DC, President Trump has signed the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act and with it created the U.S. Space Force (USSF) as the sixth branch of the armed forces.
The Space Force is part of the Department of the Air Force, much as the U.S. Marine Corps is part of the Department of the Navy. The new branch will be set up over the next 18 months, military officials said.
While it is technically up to Congress to approve the creation of the Space Force, a sixth military branch that would organize, train and equip a corps of military space personnel, Trump’s signing of Space Policy Directive 4 marks the first time the administration has made clear how the new service would fit into the existing military structure.
Meanwhile, intelligence agencies like the National Reconnaissance Office will continue to reside separately from the Space Force, as will agencies like NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“It was nearly half a century from Kitty Hawk to the creation of the Air Force. And now it’s 50 years after Apollo 11 that we create the Space Force,” Trump said during signing ceremonies at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Friday (Dec. 20).
