House panel votes to split Air Force, create new U.S. Space Corps

[jpak]

Source: Federal News Radio

As part of its version of the 2018 Defense authorization bill, the House Armed Services Committee voted late Wednesday night to create a sixth branch of the U.S. armed forces: the U.S. Space Corps, which would absorb the Air Force’s current space missions.

You could be forgiven if you haven’t been closely following the debate about creating the nation’s first new military service since 1947. Several members of the panel said they themselves were blindsided by the proposal, and staged an unsuccessful effort to block the change until it could be studied further — or at least until the full committee had held at least one hearing on the subject.

Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio) said he only learned about the proposal last week, when it first came before the subcommittee on strategic forces.

“I chastised my staff and said, ‘How could I not know that this was happening?’ They said, ‘Well, they had a meeting about it and you missed it,’” Turner said. “A meeting is certainly not enough. Maybe we do need a space corps, but I think this bears more than just discussions in a subcommittee. We have not had Secretary Mattis come before us and tell us what this means. We have not heard from the secretary of the Air Force. There’s a whole lot of work we need to do before we go as far as creating a new service branch.”

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Read more: https://federalnewsradio.com/defense-news/2017/06/house-panel-votes-to-split-air-force-create-new-u-s-space-corps/

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And young enlisted personnel will be called "Space Cadets"

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. "And young enlisted personnel will be called 'Space Cadets'."

Been there; done that already, 45 years ago.

[OldRedneck]

18. And their uniforms will look like . . .

?????

[BumRushDaShow]

21. this

[Kaleva]

35. Where are the Red Shirts? Dead I suspect.

[BumRushDaShow]

37. Well for fairness purposes

[jmowreader]

42. Okay...sorry guys, but I got to

This is the Space Corps officer uniform:



Hygiene will be very important (but we can't show that picture here)

Our troopers will be well trained, if not well equipped...



Healthy working relations will be encouraged...



Their first task will be to find another planet with a human-compatible biosphere.
Their second task will be to pack a spaceship full of Republicans and send it there.

[iluvtennis]

2. I'm former US Air Force...there is no need for this. Besides, I didn't think Astronauts and...

scientists, and mission specialists had to be Air Force. Trump is really looking for an accomplishment. Sad

[sarge43]

6. Some day maybe a major air command. A separate branch, nah. n/t

[jmowreader]

23. There is already a MAJCOM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Force_Space_Command

Trump wants to go down in history as the first president since 1947 to create a new military branch. The problem is, he's more likely to go down as the first president to be removed by impeachment.

[sarge43]

24. And here I thought he wanted to down size the fed. n/t

[jmowreader]

31. All Republicans say that.

One fine day the cops were on patrol in the countryside when they came upon a guy filling in a big hole. They were interested, so they pulled over.

"Officer, there was a bus full of Republicans run off the road about two hours ago. They all died, so I'm burying them."
'A bus load of Republicans, you say? What was there, forty or fifty?'
"Yeah, something like that. I didn't really count them."
'And you're sure they're all dead?'
"Yup. They're all dead. 'Course, they all said they wasn't, but you know how Republicans lie."

But seriously guys, Your Republican LOVES to expand the size of the government.

[sarge43]

32. Oh I know, jmowreader. My attempt at sarcasm. Sad. n/t

[haele]

22. A lot of mission specialists and Astronauts are Navy and Marine Corps, not Air Force.

But still - you have NASA, and various joint military Space commands that currently handle both Satellite security and high altitude surveillance or "warfare".
It would make more sense to keep it under NASA, unless Drumpf's National Security Advisors think they can build and deploy oh - Tie Fighters and Space Cannons. They want to weaponize the Exosphere...? Satellite Killers? Or maybe put a Military base on the Moon or Mars?

Haele

[Girard442]

3. Not a military historian, but...

...doesn't seem to me that splitting off the Air Force from the Army way back when has been a smashing success.

[lastlib]

41. Had a RWNJ (my brother) tell me the USAF was unconstitutional--

The Constitution only provides for an army and a navy, he said.

I sarcastically replied that I'd read that James Madison was dead-set against folks flyin'...........

[Honeycombe8]

4. To prepare for space wars? Polluting space isn't enough. We need to blast the hell out there...

with other countries out there blasting back.

[Dave Starsky]

10. I think we'll be the country blasting back.

It's the rest of the world that's moving in space. We're more focused on science denial and "making America great again".

[IronLionZion]

14. A long time ago in a galaxy far away

Last edited Thu Jun 29, 2017, 05:54 PM - Edit history (1)

the Obama administration put out an amazing response to the petition to build the death star

https://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/the-white-house-response-to-the-death-star-petitio?utm_term=.npbM8yJ4Y0#.hy5J39mAPo

By Paul Shawcross, Chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget

The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn't on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:

- The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We're working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.

- The Administration does not support blowing up planets.

- Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?

However, look carefully (here's how) and you'll notice something already floating in the sky -- that's no Moon, it's a Space Station! Yes, we already have a giant, football field-sized International Space Station in orbit around the Earth that's helping us learn how humans can live and thrive in space for long durations. The Space Station has six astronauts -- American, Russian, and Canadian -- living in it right now, conducting research, learning how to live and work in space over long periods of time, routinely welcoming visiting spacecraft and repairing onboard garbage mashers, etc. We've also got two robot science labs -- one wielding a laser -- roving around Mars, looking at whether life ever existed on the Red Planet.

Keep in mind, space is no longer just government-only. Private American companies, through NASA's Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office (C3PO), are ferrying cargo -- and soon, crew -- to space for NASA, and are pursuing human missions to the Moon this decade.

Even though the United States doesn't have anything that can do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, we've got two spacecraft leaving the Solar System and we're building a probe that will fly to the exterior layers of the Sun. We are discovering hundreds of new planets in other star systems and building a much more powerful successor to the Hubble Space Telescope that will see back to the early days of the universe.

We don't have a Death Star, but we do have floating robot assistants on the Space Station, a President who knows his way around a light saber and advanced (marshmallow) cannon, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is supporting research on building Luke's arm, floating droids, and quadruped walkers.

We are living in the future! Enjoy it. Or better yet, help build it by pursuing a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field. The President has held the first-ever White House science fairs and Astronomy Night on the South Lawn because he knows these domains are critical to our country's future, and to ensuring the United States continues leading the world in doing big things.

If you do pursue a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field, the Force will be with us! Remember, the Death Star's power to destroy a planet, or even a whole star system, is insignificant next to the power of the Force.

[denbot]

26. God, I miss the previous administration.

I will never forgive, let alone excuse anyone who supported the current shit show fouling the White House.

[sarge43]

5. Full title: Eager Young Space Cadets

Motto: If you're not high, you're not Space Corps.

[Dave Starsky]

7. I thought they were still the Army Air Corps.

Shows you how much I've been paying attention.

[Girard442]

9. LOL. It's been a while dude.

Was it nice on that remote Pacific island?

[Dave Starsky]

12. Next thing you'll tell me...

Is that a cognitively impaired, angry shaved orangutan was elected President of the United States.

[Girard442]

16. Yeah, I heard that too, but it seems too unlikely.

[IronLionZion]

17. And what next? Ronald Reagan the movie actor!

In your dreams!

I bet you'll tell me that a presidential campaign colluded with Russia to win an election too.

[IronLionZion]

8. And no one told them SPAWAR already exists?

http://www.public.navy.mil/spawar/Pages/default.aspx

[haele]

25. Program Executive Office - Space is the Space in SPAWAR.

I'd have to kill you if I told you what they did... (just kidding)...
There's also all sorts of SECNAV and Joint Chiefs divisions that already specialize in Space "warfare" (i.e. various types of satellite security, signal exploitation, upper-atmospheric and space-based military, navigational, communications and environmental monitoring and tracking).
What we don't have is Reagan's "Star Wars" - and for a very good reason.
So, this crew of bright business school drop-out trust fund babies thinks they know better than engineers and scientists? Or is this just another "high tech" boondoggle to stuff money into corporate and investment fund coffers?

Haele

[FSogol]

11. "When I 1st enlisted in the Space Corps, I never thought I'd get stationed in Olathe, Kansas

- Bob Elliot

[turbinetree]

13. Space Oddity................

[jmowreader]

15. Huge question: How does this get paid for?

While attempting NOT to make "Starship Troopers" jokes, it seems to me that in an era when the president and his minions in Congress haven't seen a tax they didn't want to get rid of or a government program they didn't want to sell to the highest bidder, creating a sixth branch of the military isn't a real wise use of the public purse.

[IronLionZion]

19. By cutting social programs

and going deeper into debt

Sell all our national parks to the highest bidder

Sell NSA and CIA data to the Russians and Chinese

[C Moon]

20. The GOP ALWAYS has a hidden agenda. There's more to this...for their pockets.

[Initech]

27. Come on real life USS Enterprise!!!

[Blue_Tires]

28. Hell yeah I wanna enlist in Starfleet and bang some alien females!

[Initech]

29. I call first officer!

[sarge43]

33. Yeah but, you could wind up in Security... on the Enterprise, Constitution class

[Zorro]

30. There are pros and cons to heading down this path

and it should be vigorously debated in Congress, since it will require significant restructuring of the current military organization.

Air Force personnel whose careers are focused on space acquisition and operations are perceived to have limited advancement opportunities, with preference given to officers and airmen who remain in the air-breathing domain. This can be a significant problem for the future, with coordinating the defense of critical space assets from growing adversary capabilities becomes a more dominant concern.

[EX500rider]

34. Tend to agree..

.....if your career path is a dead end you won't get the best & brightest.
And if there is anywhere you need rocket scientists....this may be the place.

[cagefreesoylentgreen]

45. It might be part of Bannon's plan

Somewhere, buried in all the crap flowing out of the WH, I remember reading that Bannon is obsessed with beating China in building a permanent moonbase and Mars landing. By any means possible, including physically destroying Chinese space probes and launchers.

[LeftInTX]

36. OK- my dad joined the AF like the year it was created

But it had a huge fleet that started in WWI and by the end of WWII it was ready to move out of the Army. I just don't see enough space personnel to create a new branch of the military. The space program also relies on civilians. And didn't Congress starve NASA and retired the space shuttle a few years ago? And now there is SpaceX which is a private venture.

This just doesn't make sense. They starved NASA and now this.

[NCjack]

38. Doesn't make sense. Already, congress can't keep up with Pentagon

organization. Should the submarine service be split from the Navy and elevated? Space Corps is just another way to make more senior officers for coordination, administration, etc.

[muriel_volestrangler]

39. I propose it is called the Vacuum Force, to easily distinguish it from the Air Force (nt)

[HuskyOffset]

40. Naturally, the Stargate

program will move from Air Force control to the Space Corps. Question is, will the space Corps have to pay rent to the Air Force, as Stargate Command takes up a tremendous amount of space in the Air Force's Norad facility inside Cheyenne Mountain. I bet they never even thought about that shit. I should tweet this at Trump, he needs to get to the bottom of this, before it turns into a tremendously sad farce.

[mackdaddy]

43. NASA Denies That Its Running a Child Slave Colony on Mars

This is the real reason why they are splitting !!!1111!!!1 This why they could never find them kids in that pizza place.... (do I really need a sarcasm thingie?)

"A report on Alex Jones’ InfoWars claiming child sex slaves have been kidnapped and shipped to Mars is untrue, NASA told The Daily Beast on Thursday.

“There are no humans on Mars. There are active rovers on Mars. There was a rumor going around last week that there weren’t. There are,” Guy Webster, a spokesperson for Mars exploration at NASA, told The Daily Beast. “But there are no humans.”

On Thursday’s program, the InfoWars host welcomed guest Robert David Steele onto The Alex Jones Show, which airs on 118 radio stations nationwide, to talk about kidnapped children he said have been sent on a two-decade mission to space."

http://www.thedailybeast.com/nasa-denies-that-its-running-a-child-slave-colony-on-mars

[gfwzig]

44. OOHH , wait wait, I know let's call it NASA, (nasa is civillian, and not permitted to wage war)