A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket carrying the third Mobile User Objective System satellite for the U.S. Navy creates a light trail as it lifts off on Jan. 20, 2015.
The U.S. Defense Department this week will take the first steps to create the Space Force, a new branch of the military ordered up by President Trump but not yet fully backed by Congress.
In coming months, Defense Department leaders plan to stand up three of the four components of the new Space Force: a new combatant command for space, a new joint agency to buy satellites for the military, and a new warfighting community that draws space operators from all service branches. These sweeping changes - on par with the past decade's establishment of cyber forces - are the part the Pentagon can do without lawmakers' approval.
Creating the fourth component - an entirely new branch of the military with services and support functions such as financial management and facilities construction - will require congressional action. Defense officials plan to spend the rest of 2018 building a "legislative proposal for the authorities necessary to fully establish the Space Force." That would go to Congress early next year as part of the Trump administration's 2020 budget proposal.
Comment: As it is, the US is no fit state to take on China and Russia - especially in space, since they still rely on Russia rockets. What is curious is this "seismic" shift in the organizational process and whether this is symbolic of the increasing belligerence and blatant disregard by the US deepstate of the US democratic process: