105 – Recommended reading: To Rule the Orbits: Why the U.S. Military Needs an Independent Space Force

Earthlights from ISS approaching the United States. (Credit: Reid Wiseman, NASA.)

To Rule the Orbits: Why the U.S. Military Needs an Independent Space Force“, Jerry Hendrix, National Review, February 7, 2019.

Retired U.S. Navy captain and naval historian Jerry Hendrix has looked at President Trump’s call for the establishment of a U.S. Space Force from the historical perspective of how the modern U.S. Air Force was formed following World War II combined with the military challenges that China now presents. I recommend reading this article. My thanks to Lt. Col. Peter Garretson who flagged this article on LinkedIn.


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James Michael (Mike) Snead is an aerospace Professional Engineer in the United States, an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), and a past chair of the AIAA’s Space Logistics Technical Committee. He is the founder and president of the Spacefaring Institute LLC (spacefaringinstitute.net) which is focused on space solar power-generated astroelectricity and the astrologistics infrastructure necessary to enable the spacefaring industrial revolution that will build space solar power energy systems. Mike Snead has been involved in space development since the mid-1980s when he supported the U.S. Air Force Transatmospheric Vehicle (TAV) studies, the National Aerospace Plane program, and the Delta Clipper Experimental (DC-X) project. In 2007, after retiring from civilian employment with the Air Force, he began to study the need for (and politics associated with) undertaking space solar power. Beginning in the late 1980s, he has published numerous papers and articles on various aspects of manned spaceflight, astrologistics, and energy. His technical papers are located at https://www.mikesnead.com and https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mike-Snead/research. His blog is at: https://spacefaringamerica.com. His eBook, Astroelectricity, can be downloaded for free here. He can be contacted through LinkedIn or through email sent to spacefaringinstitute@gmail.com.