The Sunday Read: ‘What Does the U.S. Space Force Actually Do?’

[Music]. hi my name is John gerner I'm a. contributor to the New York Times. magazine and I write about science and. technology this week's Sunday read is a. story I wrote for the magazine space. issue about the space force it's the. newest smallest and most secretive. branch of the US. military it was established just four. years ago and its members they're called.

Guardians are in charge of observing and. protecting everything that belongs to. America that's orbiting above the Earth. that includes defending military. satellites and all the satellites we. sometimes take for granted that are. vital to our day-to-day. lives unlike say the Air Force or even. the Coast Guard you won't see photos of. its planes and ships in service and. because so much of its work is out of. sight.

the space force has almost become this. caricature there's even a Netflix comedy. series about it starring Steve. Carell the operating costs for the space. force amount to about $26 billion a year. and I don't think it's uncommon to hear. questions like well why do we need to. spend so much to protect our satellites. or are these threat star satellites real. or. imagined but picture life without GPS.

without mapping and directions or. without weather satellites which are. entire agricultural systems depend on. our lives are tied very intimately to. what's happening in space and so I. wanted to find out what does this new. branch of the military actually do and. how do they do. it so after approaching the space force. and explaining the premise of my story. they agreed to give me some access that.

I think they don't ordinarily. offer in Colorado I visited the Peterson. and Shri bases which were formerly used. by the Air Force I also went to a place. called space systems command in Los. Angeles not far from. LAX most of the time there was a great. veil of secrecy over what the Guardians. were doing at Peterson I couldn't bring. any electronic devices into the. buildings I could only go old school and.

use a notebook there were some people I. couldn't quote by name and sometimes I'd. enter a room and it would need to be. vacated before I could walk through it. and I'd have to pass through quickly but. I did uncover a lot in my reporting. about how and why the space force. operates which you'll hear about in my. story one of the most striking things to. me was this I've always thought of space. as a place of Wonder and delight and. endless curiosity.

but the space force Guardians in their. own words consider space to be a. contested congested warfighting. domain this military branch of about. 15,000 people has to prepare for a war. in space even as they do everything they. can to prevent a war in. space it's this delicate Balancing Act. between security and the kind of arms. race we've entered into with Russia and.

China and they have to make sure they. don't overstep. it so here's my article what does the US. space force actually do read by Eric. Jason. Martin chief Master Sergeant Ron Lurch. of the US space force sat down in his. office in Los Angeles one morning in in. September to deliver a briefing known as.

a threat. assessment the current threats in space. are less sci-fi than you might expect. but there are a surprising number of. them at least. 44,500 space objects now Circle Earth. including 9,000 active satellites and. 19,000 significant pieces of. debris what's most concerning isn't the. swarm of satellites but the types.

we know that there are kinetic kill. Vehicles Lurch said for example a. Russian nesting doll satellite in which. a big satellite releases a tiny one and. the tiny One releases a mechanism that. can strike and damage another satellite. there are machines with the ability to. cast Nets and extend grappling hooks. too China whose presence in space now. far outpaces Russ's is launching. unmanned space planes.

into orbit testing potentially. unbreakable Quantum communication links. and adding AI capabilities to. satellites an intelligence report Lurch. said predicted the Advent within the. next decade of satellites with radio. frequency Jammers chemical sprayers and. lasers that blind and disable the. competition all this would be in. addition to the cyber warfare tools. electromagnetic instrument and ASAT.

anti-satellite missiles that already. exist on the ground in lurch's. assessment space looked less like a. grand new ocean for exploration phrasing. meant to induce wonder that is lingered. from the Kennedy administration and more. like a robotic Battlefield where the. conflicts raging on Earth would soon. extend ever. upward the space force the the sixth and.

newest branch of the US military was. authorized by Congress and signed into. law by President Donald Trump in. December. 2019 its creation was not a partisan. Endeavor though Trump has boasted that. the idea for the organization was his. alone the initiative had in fact been. shaped within the armed forces and. Congress over the previous 25 years. based on the premise that as satellite. and space technology evolved America's.

military organizations had to change as. well at its Incarnation the space force. was an assemblage of programs and teams. that already existed mainly as entities. within the Air Force it's one of the. common misperceptions that it cost money. to create the space force and it really. didn't because we already had space. forces Todd Harrison of the center for. strategic and International Studies told.

me these were just spread throughout the. military the people the bases the. platforms the satellites the ground. stations what the new directive did. accomplish however was to group space. Endeavors under a central chain of. command and authorize its leaders to. chart a unified. future one of the things that we were. lacking without a space force was an. organization that would argue for its. own destiny Douglas Lao a for former. Pentagon official involved in helping.

start the branch told me the concern was. that without a dedicated team within the. military's bureaucracy that could push. for the specific tools they needed the. United States would be at a. disadvantage some strategists worried. that the nation already was Lao pointed. out that two decades ago a Chinese. military analyst named Wong Hu Chung. wrote a paper that pressed an aspect of. China's Aeros Space strategy for.

countries that can never win a war with. the United States by using the method of. tanks and planes attacking the US space. system may be an irresistible and most. tempting. Choice the argument identified space as. the US military's soft ribs and. strategic. weakness from the start the space force. had detractors Air Force officials. wondered if it was necessary. while some political observers believed.

that it signified the start of a. dangerous and expensive militarization. of another realm what seemed harder to. argue against was how nearly every. aspect of modern warfare and defense. intelligence surveillance Communications. operations missile detection has come to. rely on links to orbiting satellites the. recent battles in Eastern Europe in. which Russia has tried to disrupt. Ukraine's spaceborn communication.

systems are a case in point and yet the. Strategic exploitation of space now. extends well beyond military concerns. satellite phone systems have become. widespread positioning and timing. satellites such as GPS now overseen by. the space force allow for digital. mapping navigation Banking and. agricultural management a world without. orbital weather survey days seems.

Unthinkable Modern Life is reliant on. Space Technologies to an extent that an. interruption would create profound. economic and social. distress the work of the space force is. by its nature highly sensitive often. classified and mostly out of sight this. leaves the organization in a battle for. visibility and at times. viability some members of the force. guard Guardians as they're called told.

me that even now they find themselves. bumping into members of other branches. of the military who see their arm. patches and ask in Earnest space force. is that a real. thing the Steve Carell Netflix comedy. series which members of the actual space. force sometimes argue is neither good. nor funny doesn't help their cause it. likewise doesn't capture their. seriousness of. purpose for the moment the force has.

taken up a problem not often. contemplated outside science fiction how. do you fight a war in space or a war on. Earth that expands into space and even. if you're ready to fight how do you make. sure you don't have a space war in the. first. place the space forces Operations. Division is headquartered on the. Southeastern side of Colorado Springs in. a massive three-story building with. within the guarded perimeter of Peterson.

space Force Base until recently it was. Peterson Air Force. Base the office's inner workings are. highly secure and secretive the force as. one security analyst told me has a. larger proportion of its budget around. $26 billion this year dedicated to. classified spending than any other. branch of the military visitors to. headquarters are not allowed toing. electronic devices or walk unescorted.

inside the building nevertheless hums. with activity with Personnel hustling. about under a canopy of scale model. satellites large replicas of machines. that now orbit Earth hanging in a bright. Airy. Atrium when I visited in late September. several military and civilian Personnel. took me through their day-to-day work. right away they noted that the space for. force is often mistaken for United.

States space command also headquartered. in Colorado that reports to the US. Secretary of Defense space command is a. decision-making entity that coordinates. space related operations for all. branches of the Armed Forces the space. force by contrast outfits and trains. troops for potential space conflicts. scrutinizes space for dangers and. launches satellites for the Department. of Defense the space force regularly.

consults with space command to ask how. or whether the potential threats it. discovers should be addressed as large. as the space forces remit seems to be to. monitor protect and ensure access to a. territory far larger than Earth's oceans. technology now enables economies of. scale it's a big domain with the. smallest Force smaller than the co Coast. Guard Christopher SS the technical.

director to the deputy Commanding. General for operations explained all. told the space force has about. 8,600 military Guardians and about 5,000. civilian guardians but you don't need. hundreds of people to operate a. satellite after launch you may need only. one space Force personnel often do their. work in aircond conditioned windowless. buildings outfit with computer servers.

and robust intelligence links during. critical situations they deploy in place. that is they report to the same offices. but at a heightened state of. Readiness Guardians tend to think of the. realm they Patrol as a kind of. structured multi-level terrain Earth as. being surrounded by three highways or. three rings the nearest level low earth. orbit Leo is host to constellations like.

spacex's starlink Network and the. International Space Station which moves. about 250 Mi above us at. 17,500. mph a medium earth orbit moo between. 1200 and 22,000 m above is where GPS. satellites circle at the highest ring at. least for now is a track known as. geosynchronous orbit G. because an object in such an orbit keeps.

Pace with Earth's. rotation this band is home to Direct TV. satellites weather tracking instruments. from the National Oceanic and. Atmospheric Administration and crucial. defense department communication. links it's a technological Zoo up there. the satellite mix is foreign and. domestic young and old Sinister and. peaceful the Technologies are all. different sizes flying at different.

speeds and altitudes the challenge for. the force is to monitor all movement but. also to track the threatening presence. of debris some of which is naturally. occurring tiny rocks for instance and. some of which has human Origins like. shards of old Rockets because space junk. can move at extraordinary velocities a. floating screw might pack a destructive. punch equivalent to a small bomb.

[Music]. the main focus within the space force is. on observation and. deterrence nobody wants a space War I. was reminded frequently but the force. has a capacity to mobilize when. necessary at Peterson I visited an an. electromagnetic Warfare Center a.

building not far from headquarters but. ringed with surveillance cameras and an. additional perimeter of high fencing. where men and women train to unjam. signals that may be intentionally. interfering with American planes ships. and ground. troops it would be like watching TV and. you can't get the signal Lieutenant. Colonel DJ Thomas who leads the team. told me in emergencies Thomas said his. Guardians would pack up a pair of.

portable dish antennas and a customized. computer console at a moment's notice a. combined unit that struck me as fitting. easily into a minivan and ship out to. remote locations all over the. world the rooms I visited at the. electromagnetic Warfare Center were for. defensive training a part of the. building was given over two offensive. tactics clearly the force sees both as. necessary. and if a requirement to Blind and deafen.

an enemy's satellites were to arise from. us space command the space force could. help fulfill the order the means would. most likely not be kinetic some form of. physical or explosive contact but. electronic a weapon of code related. stealth or perhaps a kind of. debilitating high energy burst Colonel. Chandler Atwood of space force oper. ation command told me that what concerns.

him most is his belief that Americans. are unaware of how rapidly orbital. dangers have evolved he acknowledged. that the force observes multiple events. daily in space that require its. attention it's not the kinetic threat. that keeps me up at night he added it's. the cyberdefense aspect we have. significant vulnerabilities we have to. harden. up from Peterson I took a 30-minute ride. to a smaller space force base in.

Colorado known as Shri which sits on a. grassy plane with a distant view of. Pikes. Peak to reach the space Force's orbital. Warfare unit meant passing through a. gated station at the bases perimeter and. barriers of high protective fencing. monitored by guards with body armor and. weapons Lieutenant Colonel Galen Thorp. escorted me inside the complex the most. crucial part of his work occurs inside a. building where about 120 Guardians.

working in teams of five at a time push. buttons as Thorp put it to drive five. maneuverable observation satellites. known as gaps for the geosynchronous. space situational awareness program at a. distance of. 22,300 Mi above Earth unlike many. satellites which cannot be significantly. steered once they're put into orbit. these have tanks of propellant and are.

akin to enormous remote controlled. drones the program was originally. created inside the Air Force I asked. Thorp how things had evolved since his. unit was reconfigured within the space. force 3 years ago he pointed to a shift. in posture from merely cataloging all. the satellites in orbit to scrutinizing. their behavior using tools like gaps in. terms of threat awareness. or as he put it we have to know where.

these objects are in a protect and. defend sense thorp's colleague Captain. Raymond Pereira drawing on a whiteboard. pointed me to another concern the crowd. of satellites in low earth orbit I would. say we're probably already entering into. an area where congestion is a problem he. said and anything that would generate. debris would be catastrophic for the. domain one plausible theory is known as. The Kessler syndrome named after the.

former NASA scientist Donald Kessler. which posits that a release of wreckage. and fragments in this orbit could. eventually lead to a domino effect of. Unstoppable. destruction Pereira pointed out that if. someone or something were to touch off. such an event they would not only be. harming their adversary they would be. harming themselves but even short of. that a single Collision or attack might. hamstring science missions to the moon.

or to Mars or lead to failures for GPS. and Communications systems a problem. that could have huge consequences for. life on. Earth keeping track of. 44,500 items moving around the planet. along with new arrivals that slip into. orbit nearly every week poses a. multi-dimensional task who launched. these machines why what could they.

do we need to know what's up there where. is it going and why we should be. concerned Colonel Brian mlan of the. space force told. me this goal known as space domain. awareness has become one of the forces's. overarching. priorities there are enormous challenges. in creating a system of constant. observation and making sense of so much. data. what constitutes threatening activities.

in orbit moreover and what might. necessitate a strategic response is not. always clear in truth space has few. unquestioned laws apart from those. relating to gravity a treaty from the. late 1960s signed by most of the major. Nations on Earth prohibits the use of. nuclear weapons in space and designates. the moon for peaceful purposes but. recently I was was told satellites from. foreign adversaries have been coming.

close to machines from the United States. and its allies the treaty says nothing. about such provocations or about. grappling hooks nesting dolls and cyber. warfare space force leaders readily. describe their Guardians as working. toward a state of combat Readiness even. as they hope an era of actual conflict. never. arrives in October I went to the. Pentagon to meet with General chance.

Saltzman the chief of space operations. and the space forces's highest ranking. officer saltsman remarked that several. decades back when he began working with. satellites in the Air Force the notion. that there could be combat losses in. space was not part of the. conversation but those are discussions. now he told me because both the Chinese. and the Russians have demonst strated. operational capabilities that truly.

placed those assets at risk in 2007. China's decision to test an ASAT weapon. to destroy one of its own satellites. sent shock waves through the US Military. and created a vast field of. debris a similar Russian tactic in 2021. generated more than 1,500 fragments and. led Secretary of State Anthony blinkin. to describe the act as recklessly. conducted the space Force's own.

squadrons saltsman told me were still. tracking pieces of junk that date to the. 2007. explosion you know the other domains. kind of clean themselves up after War. saltsman said you shoot an airplane down. it falls out of the sky ships sink out. of the sea Lanes even on land you bring. the bulldozers in and you move things. around but space doesn't heal. itself debris has led military.

strategists to ponder a related issue in. space it's difficult to get out of the. way of. conflict right now Saltzman noted if you. pull up realtime data to see where. flights are around the world the. airspace over Ukraine is empty you will. see a void he said commercial air. traffic does not want to fly over. Ukraine the same thing happens in. shipping lanes like the straight of. Hormuz when the Middle East is in. turmoil as it is now so in other domains.

refugees displaced persons people get. out of the way of conflict commercial. entities move out of the way and avoid. conflict in space orbital mechanics take. over machines keep going around and. around following the laws of gravity. NASA's satellites may not be able to. steer away from a potential combat zone. and Commercial entities can can't move. or won't know where or when to move and.

then potentially every satellite becomes. more debris saltsman remarked every. peaceful satellite could become a weapon. accidentally I asked Saltzman what he. and his colleagues had learned from. observing the war in Ukraine with a. caveat that the fighting is hardly over. it could still be a catastrophe on a. grand scale he said he pointed to. several crucial events the first was how.

one of Russia's earliest Endeavors was. to deny Ukrainian troops access to a. satellite Communications system they. relied upon known as ViaSat which is. stationed in the distant geosynchronous. orbital belt and they did it with a. Cyber attack against the ground. infrastructure he said so you attack the. ground Network to achieve the space. effect you want this wasn't a surprise. to him he said yet it was a reminder of.

the potential power of cyber warfare and. how battles to dominate space could. still be. terrestrial another crucial Point came. after that attack Ukraine's decision to. go to a commercial vendor SpaceX and use. its starlink system for combat. Communications here the lesson was. twofold first that what saltsman called. commercial augmentation could prove. vital in a crisis as important he added.

starlink a configuration of hundreds of. proliferated small satellites flying in. low earth orbit has proved hard to bring. down the Russians are trying to. interrupt it he said and they're not. having very good success and the. takeaway is that proliferated systems of. many small machines in low orbit can be. more technologically resilient to. hacking and disruption than a few big. machines in higher orbits this seems to. fit into saltsman's goal of maintaining.

strength during combat while achieving a. larger objective of avoiding conflict. altogether if I have two or three. satellite Communications doing nuclear. command and control maybe those are. targets he explained but if I take. nuclear command in control and spread it. across 400 satellites that are zipping. Over the Horizon every 15 minutes. there's a targeting problem. how many satellites do I have to shoot.

down now to take out the US nuclear. command and. control if the answer was 400 it would. make things difficult for the. enemy and while small satellites in a. large configuration could potentially be. a more expensive investment than 2 or. three Mega satellites the shift could be. worthwhile if an adversary believes that. it cannot achieve a military objective. saltsman remarked it will hesitate to.

cross a threshold of. violence no conflicts no debris no. [Music]. crisis over the course of several days. in Los Angeles at space systems command. a space Force division that plans and. acquires technology I met with about a. dozen Colonels who detailed their ideas. for the next decade. some discussions addressed the space.

Force's goal of being able to launch. satellites within say 24 hours in urgent. situations I learned the force is. working on developing machines that can. be refueled in orbit as well as. satellites that can repair other. satellites because rockets and orbital. objects travel so fast the International. Space Station circles Earth every 90. minutes some tacticians are pondering. being able to deliver via launches into. space a high value package such as a.

rare medication or a vital part for an. F35 fighter jet halfway across the world. in as little as 30. minutes other projects are less. speculative there are deep concerns. within the military about China and. Russia's Hypersonic Glide weapons which. may be able to avoid defense systems. through bursts of speed and pretzel. flight p ads in response the force is.

trying to implement a new system of. detection in the next several years at. low and Middle Earth. orbits it took ample funds to build and. launch the old systems Colonel Heather. bogy who helps oversee the program told. me but with the speed our adversaries. are Fielding these Hypersonic Glide. Vehicles we don't have the luxury of. time. anymore Brian weedon of the secure world. found Foundation a nonprofit that. focuses on keeping the orbital realm.

peaceful and sustainable told me that. the US military has faced perennial. challenges in reducing costs and. delivery times for new space-based. projects and that the space force has. yet to prove it can buck that Trend. still the force is trying to nurture. America's domestic rocket industry. acting as a facilitator for National. Security launches while stoking the. growth and bringing down the expense of.

fledgling commercial. Enterprises the Department of Defense. sometimes requires big Rockets to take. heavy satellites farther into space that. is into the moo or Geo layers making for. significant technical challenges for new. companies Colonel Douglas Pentecost the. deputy director of launch Enterprise at. space systems command also told me that. because some launch carry very precious. super secret instruments they cannot.

fail under any. circumstances for now SpaceX has. demonstrated the capabilities and safety. record to carry these. payloads but Pentecost told me we can't. rely on one company to always be there. for us that's basically taking us back. to the 1980s when we were relying on the. space shuttle and then when the space. shuttle had its unfortunate ACC accident. we yet no way into space for several.

years in an effort to diversify risks. pentecost's team is working with the. United launch Alliance a partnership of. Lockheed Martin and. Boeing commercial companies Firefly. rocket lab and Jeff bezos's blue origin. for instance are in the mix too the goal. would be a range of reliable and cheaper. launch companies to choose from by the. late 2020 IES Pentecost said he would. soon like to be able to get any payload.

into orbit at any. time there is a darker side that. accompanies a future of rampant growth. as space becomes commercialized it. increasingly becomes a geopolitical. arena for competition too just as China. launched a space plane that stayed aoft. for months so has the US space force. just as competitors developed satellites. that make close and unnerving approaches.

to our satellites so does the US space. force with so many launches now planned. and so many designs for enigmatic. satellites in the works it becomes hard. not to wonder if the United States will. become engaged in a new arms race or to. ask if it already. has in 1950 a political scientist named. John Herz introduced the term security. dilemma noting that in international.

Affairs a state concerned with being. attacked subjected dominated or. annihilated by others can be drawn into. a vicious circle of building up its. defenses one implication of this a. political scientist named Robert Jervis. later posited is that one States gain in. security inadvertently threatens. others when I asked Saltzman if this was. a concern. he acknowledged that it was but he also.

said that the security dilemma was a. phenomenon that probably dated back. thousands of. years weapons are not inherently. offensive or defensive saltsman. maintained weapons are just weapons and. the operations that you choose to. undertake with those weapons makes them. more offensive or. defensive the important question as he. saw it was this. at what point does a buildup of. defensive weapons in space constitute an.

ability to conduct offensive operations. so that someone else feels. threatened there is a balance here he. said and this is about stability. management what actions can we take to. protect ourselves before we start to. cross the line and maybe create a. security. dilemma the line he suggested harder to. find in space No Doubt out and at this. point not clearly.

defined had not yet been. [Music]. crossed.