Air Force Space Command

General Bernard Schriever, father of the United States Space Force and military space.

On 20 December 2019, Air Force Space Command became the U.S. Space Force, and independent military service for space.

Following the conclusion of the Second World War in 1945. Early military space development was begun within the United States Army Air Forces by General Henry H. Arnold, who identified space as a crucial military arena decades before the first spaceflight. Gaining its independence from the Army on 18 September 1947, the United States Air Force began development of military space and ballistic missile programs, while also competing with the United States Army and United States Navy for the space mission.[5]

In 1954, the Air Force created its first space organization, the Western Development Division, under the leadership of General Bernard Schriever. The Western Development Division and its successor organization, the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division, were instrumental in developing the first United States military launch vehicles and spacecraft, competing predominantly with the Army Ballistic Missile Agency under the leadership of General John Bruce Medaris and former German scientist Wernher von Braun. The launch of Sputnik 1 spurred a massive reorganization of military space and the 1958 establishment of the Advanced Research Projects Agency was a short-lived effort to centralized management of military space, with some fearing it would become a military service for space, with authorities being returned to the services in 1959. The establishment of NASA in 1958, however, completely decimated the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, resulting in the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division serving as the primary military space organization. In 1961, the Air Force was designated as the Department of Defense's executive agent for space and Air Research and Development Command was reorganized into Air Force Systems Command, with the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division being replaced by the Space Systems Division - the first Air Force division solely focused on space. In the 1960s, military space activities began to be operationalized, with Aerospace Defense Command taking control of missile warning and space surveillance on behalf of NORAD, Strategic Air Command assuming the weather reconnaissance mission, and Air Force Systems Command operating the first generations of communications satellites on behalf of the Defense Communications Agency. In 1967, the Space Systems Division and Ballistic Missiles Division were merged to form the Space and Missile Systems Organization, which began to develop the next generation of satellite communications, space-based missile warning, space launch vehicles and infrastructure, and the predecessor to the Global Positioning System. Space forces also saw their first employment in the Vietnam War, providing weather and communications support to ground and air forces.[6]

The disjointed nature of military space forces across three military commands resulted in a reevaluation of space force organization within the Air Force. In 1979, the Space and Missile Systems Organization was split, forming the Space Division, and in 1980, Aerospace Defense Command was inactivated and its space forces transferred to Strategic Air Command. Resulting from internal and external pressures, including an effort by a congressman to rename the Air Force into the Aerospace Force and the possibility that President Reagan would direct the creation of a space force as a separate military branch, the Air Force directed the formation of Air Force Space Command in 1982. During the 1980s, Air Force Space Command absorbed the space missions of Strategic Air Command and the launch mission from Air Force Systems Command. Space forces provided space support during the Falklands War, United States invasion of Grenada, the 1986 United States bombing of Libya, Operation Earnest Will, and the United States invasion of Panama. The tactical employment of space forces culminated in the Gulf War, where space forces proved so critical to the U.S.-led coalition, that it is sometimes referred to as the first space war.[8]

Following the end of the Gulf War, the Air Force came under intense congressional scrutiny by seeking to artificially merge its air and space operations into a seamless aerospace continuum, without regard for the differences between space and air. The 2001 Space Commission criticized the Air Force for institutionalizing the primacy of aviation pilots over space officers in Air Force Space Command, for stifling the development of an independent space culture, and not paying sufficient budgetary attention to space. The Space Commission recommended the formation of a Space Corps within the Air Force between 2007 and 2011, with an independent Space Force to be created at a later date. Following the recommendation of the Space Commission, the Space and Missile Systems Center was transferred from Air Force Materiel Command to Air Force Space Command. The September 11 attacks derailed most progress in space development, resulting in the inactivation of United States Space Command and beginning a period of atrophy in military space. The only major change to occur was the transfer of the Space and Missile Systems Center from Air Force Materiel Command to Air Force Space Command. Following the inactivation of U.S. Space Command in 2002, Russia and China began developing developing sophisticated on-orbit capabilities and an array of counter-space weapons, with the 2007 Chinese anti-satellite missile test of particular concern as it created 2,841 high-velocity debris items, a larger amount of dangerous space junk than any other space event in history. On 29 August 2019, United States Space Command was reestablished as a geographic combatant command.[9]

The first major employment of space forces culminated in the Gulf War, where they proved so critical to the U.S.-led coalition, that it is sometimes referred to as the first space war. The first discussions of creating a military space service occurred in 1958, with the idea being considered by President Reagan as well in 1982. The 2001 Space Commission argued for the creation of a Space Corps between 2007 and 2011 and a bipartisan proposal in the U.S. congress would have created a Space Corps in 2017. On 20 December 2019, the United States Space Force Act, part of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2020, was signed, creating an independent space service by renaming and reorganizing Air Force Space Command into the United States Space Force.[10]

The AFSPC headquarters was a major unit located at Peterson AFB, Colorado. There were six AFSPC host bases:

• Buckley AFB, Colorado
  • 460th Space Wing
  • 233rd Space Group (Colorado Air National Guard)
• Los Angeles AFB, California
  • Space and Missile Systems Center
    • Global Positioning Systems Directorate
    • Space Superiority Systems Directorate
    • Launch Systems Directorate
    • Infrared Space Systems Directorate
    • Defense Weather Systems Directorate
    • Military Satellite Communications Systems Directorate
    • Space Logistics Directorate
    • Missile Defense Systems Directorate
    • Space Development and Test Directorate (Kirtland AFB, New Mexico)
    • Spacelift Range and Network Systems Division
  • 61st Air Base Group
    • 61st Civil Engineering and Logistics Squadron
    • 61st Medical Squadron
    • 61st Mission Support Squadron
• Patrick AFB and Cape Canaveral AFS, Florida
  • 45th Space Wing
    • 114th Space Control Squadron (Florida Air National Guard)
• Peterson AFB, Colorado
  • 21st Space Wing
    • 821st Air Base Group (GSU at Thule Air Base, Greenland)
    • 20th Space Control Squadron (GSU at Eglin AFB Site C-6, Florida
  • 310th Space Wing (AFRC)
• Schriever AFB, Colorado
  • 50th Space Wing
  • Space Innovation and Development Center
• Vandenberg AFB, California
  • 14th Air Force
  • 30th Space Wing
    • 148th Space Operations Squadron (California Air National Guard)

AFSPC also operated several Air Force Stations for launch support and early warning missions:

• Cape Cod Air Force Station, Massachusetts
  • 6th Space Warning Squadron
• Cavalier AFS, North Dakota
  • 10th Space Warning Squadron
• Cheyenne Mountain AFS, Colorado
  • Cheyenne Mountain Division
• Clear Air Force Station, Alaska
  • 13th Space Warning Squadron
  • 213th Space Warning Squadron (Alaska Air National Guard)
• Greeley Air National Guard Station, Colorado
  • 137th Space Warning Squadron (Colorado Air National Guard
• New Boston AFS, New Hampshire
  • 23d Space Operations Squadron

• United States Army Air Forces
• List of government space agencies
• United States Space Surveillance Network
• NASA

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/.

• "Air Force Space Command Fact Sheet". Air Force Space Command. August 2015. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016.
• "Air Force Space Command Fact Sheet". Air Force. April 2003. Archived from the original on 24 June 2003.