DOD officials have dubbed the next few days “Space Week,” culminating with a Senate Armed Service Committee hearing Thursday morning. Developments leading up to this week’s testimony include:
- Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein, and head of the Air Force Space Command Gen. John Raymond are in Colorado Springs, Colo., at the annual Space Symposium, Defense One reports.
- In Space Symposium remarks Tuesday Shanahan said the U.S. needs to “grow our margin of dominance in space to protect our $19 trillion economy and ensure access for our warfighter.” He said the U.S. is in an era of “great power competition, and the next major conflict may be won or lost in space.”
- Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), ranking member of the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee, has qualified his position on the proposed Space Force. “I’m not opposed to undertaking a separate space function under the Air Force; I just want to make certain we do it right,” he told Defense News. “What we proposed before was haphazard, and what we have an opportunity to do now is very thoughtful undertaking to try to advance our operations and our acquisitions of space assets.”
- Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), one of the one of the architects of a Space Corps proposal that has become the model for the Space Force, still supports the proposal but wants more congressional involvement. “I had always wanted a space capability within the Air Force,” Cooper told Defense News. We did not want it to be outside the Air Force; we want to play nicely with others, and it’s a graduated process. I think one day it will be an entirely separate department, but not in the short run.”
- Air Force Technology provides an overview of what is known so far about the proposed Space Force.
Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Emily Kenney
