The Washington Times has an article up on the authorization of a new Space Command.
Trump signed a one-page memorandum Tuesday authorizing the Defense Department to create the new command. Speaking at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Vice President Mike Pence said, "a new era of American national security in space begins today.
The goal is to set up a command to oversee and organize space operations, accelerate technical advances and find more effective ways to defend U.S. assets in space, including the vast constellations of satellites that American forces rely on for navigation, communications and surveillance. The move comes amid growing concerns that China and Russia are working on ways to disrupt, disable or even destroy U.S. satellites."
This is distinct from the President's goal (enjoyed by both his supporters and detractors) of creating a separate "Space Force" military branch.
The article also notes that the Space Command is not new and that
A U.S. Space Command existed from 1985 to 2002, but was disbanded in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks so that U.S. Northern Command could be established, focusing on defense of the homeland.
Sadly, if it hadn't been for that, we might already have Space Marines.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Thursday December 20 2018, @05:44PM (12 children)
I read that this move was a precursor or first step towards creating the Space Force.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 20 2018, @05:50PM (3 children)
Space Force chaaaa
(Score: 3, Funny) by looorg on Thursday December 20 2018, @06:43PM (2 children)
It should probably be more like Space Force .. FUCK YEAH! ... Now the real Alien hunting can begin. There will be problems building a wall in space tho to keep them all out, if they exist.
But then it's only fitting that the God Emperor takes the first step out into the cold darkness of space to combat the xenos filth.
(Score: 2) by SpockLogic on Thursday December 20 2018, @07:10PM
I like Space Farce better ;-)
Overreacting is one thing, sticking your head up your ass hoping the problem goes away is another - edIII
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 20 2018, @07:23PM
I was mimicking Trump's announcement, but you nailed his supporters' reactions.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Freeman on Thursday December 20 2018, @05:56PM (3 children)
Finally, we may be prepared for when we find giant Alien bugs that want to use the Earth as a breeding ground.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Sulla on Thursday December 20 2018, @07:04PM (2 children)
I just want giant weapons in the asteroid belt. I mean yeah i guess they could be turned on earth. But I would rather humans waste a couple trillions on weaponry in the belt than in Earth orbit.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 3, Insightful) by nobu_the_bard on Thursday December 20 2018, @07:33PM
We don't need giant weapons in the asteroid belt. The asteroid belt is the ammo clip for our civilization-destroying hilarity. Just need to get a few automated factories into position and a target list.
Scientists haven't found any signs of life anywhere but Earth, and it's time to make sure it stays that way, with a preemptive strike against everything else in our solar system!
I'd like to recommend starting with Mar-A-Lago, which I presume from the name must be on Mars. I've heard there's some greens there or something.
(Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Thursday December 27 2018, @01:35AM
I want a giant laser on the dark side of the moon, no make that lots of them.
1) We can use it to push stuff with solar sails
2) no way to make it point at the Earth!
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 5, Funny) by requerdanos on Thursday December 20 2018, @06:49PM (1 child)
Instead of the arrogant-sounding "force", perhaps we should use a name that implies strength but doesn't come right out and say it. Like maybe "fleet" which implies that there are a sizeable number of is, and there's strength in numbers.
Also, instead of the "Space" fleet, maybe do something similar and give a nod to all the interesting stars out there in space (which is mostly boring) and say "Star" in place of "Space."
I think this would be an organization with a long, prosperous life.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 20 2018, @07:05PM
Sounds like you've got a good idea, pink skin.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 20 2018, @08:20PM (1 child)
This isn't just a foreword to declassifying the actual Space Force we've had for 50 years, and declaring ownership over the Moon, Mars, etc thanks to already having covert (now overt) bases settled on them, and a ground war with Russian and/or Chinese military forces who have also already arrived there.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday December 21 2018, @01:45AM
By "Space Force" you mean the space forces that the Navy and Air Force already had for at least 20 goddamn years each? I think we should rid our existing military branches of Obama's fifth-columnist AIDS pozz before we give them unstoppable space weapons that can rain doom from the heavens.
Then I would join the Space Force and name our first such declassified weapons system "Kefka's Tower."
As it is, our so-called "space forces" are a bunch of dweebs who go to work in blues every day sitting on their asses, and once in awhile they may have to maneuver an obsolete satellite into a collision-course with another, Russian, obsolete piece of junk.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 20 2018, @06:19PM (10 children)
They really shouldn't be relying on this. It is very convenient but I doubt it will still work in the case of a space-capable adversary. Instead they should use the celtic cross:
http://www.viewzone.com/crichton.html [viewzone.com]
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday December 20 2018, @06:37PM (9 children)
Thanks for the link A/C.
I love a good "ancient wisdom" theory and that's a great read. There's even a link at the bottom to were Celts in Oklahoma? [viewzone.com] which is hilarious. (The answer is no by the way).
(Score: 2) by insanumingenium on Thursday December 20 2018, @07:09PM (7 children)
I would love to know how they purport to show longitude with a cross. Likely Vespucci's or Galileo's methods, which both required significant foreknowledge and very sensitive measurement. But if they have some new novel method I would love to hear it, even if only to forward it to the flat earth clowns.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 20 2018, @07:29PM
http://rexresearch.com/millercelt/millercelt.htm [rexresearch.com]
The basic idea is to know the relative positions of the moon/etc vs the stars at the prime meridian and then measure how different it is at your position.
(Score: 3, Funny) by fyngyrz on Thursday December 20 2018, @07:32PM (3 children)
It's not nice to abuse the handicapped.
--
If the earth was flat...
...cats would have pushed everything off it by now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 20 2018, @07:47PM
Hey watch out, you'll trigger khallow if you make fun of the brain damaged.
(Score: 2) by insanumingenium on Thursday December 20 2018, @09:21PM (1 child)
If they are trolls, it only leads to us both having a good time (they get fed, and I get to call them idiots).
If they aren't trolls then they I will doubly enjoy watching the ancient aliens and flat earthers argue about their terrible methods to measure or disprove longitude. And believe me, I can enjoy watching idiots argue enough for two people.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 22 2018, @10:47AM
So you do not believe this "cross" method can be sufficiently accurate? Why?
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday December 20 2018, @08:59PM (1 child)
I wondered about that too. I also wondered how the Celts got to Oklahoma without going through any of the eastern parts of North America.
Maybe they parachuted in.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 21 2018, @01:23AM
The northwest passage?
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Thursday December 20 2018, @09:57PM
Oh well thanks for spoiling it for us!
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 20 2018, @07:08PM (1 child)
build the space wall now!
(Score: 3, Informative) by ikanreed on Thursday December 20 2018, @07:13PM
Oh don't worry, we're building ourselves an amazing Kessler syndrome. And having a small scale military conflict in space is the perfect way to make that happen.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday December 20 2018, @08:29PM
... from TFA...
Gotta grow that bureaucracy somehow! And five years from now they'll disband the Space Force to reconstitute them into constituent commands... and it will all go around again.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday December 20 2018, @09:41PM
"blah blah blah defense blah blah also we have to be ready to fight foreigners"
I guess if the "distract everybody from how much we suck by getting in a war" strategy ain't broke don't fix it eh
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 20 2018, @10:47PM
To insanity and beyond!...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by sjames on Friday December 21 2018, @12:57AM
What we need is the Science Patrol.