The joint House-Senate committee working on the final language of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) has declined to include any funding for the creation of he US Space Force, which President Trump announced last month.
Trump had promised that the Space Force would be like the US Air Force, calling it “separate, but equal.” Congress was openly skeptical in the debates, and the final version didn’t offer any direct funding for the plan.
Instead, the committee report instructs Defense Secretary James Mattis to come up with specific plans for warfighting in space, a plan which Congress would use in subsequent years to debate possible funding for the program.
Pentagon officials for years have expressed interest in the militarization of space, envisioning spending untold billions of dollars on projects that would assure American military “dominance” over space into the future. With few other nations investing much of anything in space, however, Congress was in no hurry to set aside money for it either.
So you don’t want to spend on the new military branch called Space force . You say few other countries are wasteing there military spending on space . However the two countries that do are Russia and China . China has practiced shooting down satelites . And Russia claims the Rockets could carry nuclear bombs As a matter of fact that just might be the reason Putin wants to know how we plan on using those rocket engines we buy from Russia . Putin likely will finally sanction.the United States from purchasing any more Russia space craft engines if he thinks we might arm space rockets
Kinda like the notion of buying more military parts from China, so we’ll be better-positioned for a potential war with China.
The real reason for not approving it is money. The money that is flowing from what used to be NASA spending into toys fantasized by Musk or Bezos. Ever since, ghere was not mych to show for the money. Trump is trying to use the enormous military budget for domestic purposes, and eventually he eill orevail. There is no question that both Rusdia and China are making progress in space science and technology. US is still trying to emulate without sucess Russian older generation space rocket engine RD-180. In fact, the last military launch of a satelite in March using Atlantis class ricket was powered by RD-180. The same month Musk fured of his heavy duty engine, using Tesla car as a load to prove the test. There are two things wrong with this success. One, instead if one, new, heavy duty engine to replace Rusdia one, he used three smaller ones strapped together. This is a dodgy solution, as many things can go wrong. Second, total weight of Tesla car is not half of RD-180 weighlifting capacity, so there was no real test of the capsbility if three strapped engine. To sjow exactly how bad ghings are, US Air Farce just certified this solution. This opens more funds to Musk. Cannot blame Trump for trying to use huge military budget for returning to real space science.
There are many things that bloated military budget can fund. Returning troops from overseas stationing will continue to be financed at the same clip, but all spending will benefit domestic dconomy, not a foreign one. There is no reason not to fund Army Cotps of Engineers in domestic infrastructure projects that are deemed critical for national security. Since military budgets were the only ones allowed to grow under our globalist Congress, why not go for the maximum, and find ways to use it — fixing gaps industry, infrastructure, science, education. The battle for the use of the money has just started.
Dies anyone think thst Cingress just acwuired a conscience and will not allow militarization if the space? Please. What they want is military blueprint kn hiw to do it — item by item, as opposed to Trump’s “space” agency, where Trump will define mission.
NOBODY should be extending the already excessive military interference into space.
I wholeheartedly agree, Rosemerry, nobody at all should be extending the already excessive military interference into space, except for satellites orbiting the Earth, taking photos of the planet’s surface, the use of space should only be for exploration of the other planets via probes; military interference with the exploration in space should be totally banned.