EOS Charts, page-1185

Source : https://time.com/5869987/spaceforce/ dated July 23 2020

The mission of protecting America’s vulnerable orbital networks falls to U.S. Space Command and Space Force, which since December has the same status as the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. The Pentagon has decades of experience building and deploying satellites, the military operates many of the most important ones, and it has arguably the best strategic planning skills of any organization on the planet. It also already employs 20,000 people whose jobs are to oversee and manage America’s space-based GPS, communications, weather and ballistic-missile-warning systems.

But less than eight months after its launch, Space Force is already trying to justify its existence. Some critics say diplomacy and a new international treaty, not increased military muscle, is the best way to secure space. Others point out that the Pentagon famously overstated the danger of Russian and Chinese weapons systems in the Cold War. And few institutions have the history of waste, fraud and abuse that the Pentagon does: watchdogs note that the Space Force budget for 2021 is $15.4 billion, with a projected increase of $2.6 billion over the next five years, most of it driven by classified programs.

Although the cost represents just a fraction of the Pentagon’s $740 billion total budget, convincing Americans that a new service can be trusted to protect our satellites and not just grow a vast new expensive wing on the military–industrial complex will take some doing. It doesn’t help that things have gotten off to a somewhat comedic start: the popular culture has dubbed the new command “Space Farce,” thanks in part to its biggest advocate, President Donald Trump. He’s made it a part of his re-election pitch, and his campaign sells Space Force merch. Trump even personally signed off on the Space Force official seal and made recommendations for styling its uniforms, four U.S. officials tell TIME. When word of Trump’s superficial interest in the complex, high-stakes military undertaking got out, it fueled endless memes and late-night comedy routines. In May, Netflix released a Steve Carell satirical series based on the service’s launch, including uniforms designed to provide camouflage on the moon.