U.S. Space Force Archives

Army to bolster recruiting efforts after down years

October 4, 2023
The Army is focused on recruiting young people who have earned more than just a high school diploma, hoping to reverse the yearslong deficiency of enlisted recruits. Last year, the Army fell 15,000 enlisted recruits short of its goal of 60,000.

Over the next 90 days, the Army will begin implementing some of the changes to its recruiting strategy, but the wholesale overhaul of the department will take years.

One of the most significant changes the Army will rely on is forming of a professional group of recruiters as opposed to random soldiers assigned the task. The Army will use an aptitude test to identify soldiers with the greatest potential to be successful recruiters.

The Army has long relied on high school seniors or graduates to enlist and meet its recruiting goals. Still, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told the Associated Press it is time for the Army to start reaching beyond that pool of recruits and start looking for applicants on job boards, like ZipRecruiter or Indeed.

“The vast majority of people who are out there making employment decisions are people who have more than a high school education,” Wormuth told the AP. “We need to figure out how to talk to that much broader labor market.”

As more tech roles in the military are becoming available working with computers, satellites, and artificial intelligence, Wormuth said the Army hopes to recruit more young professionals.

Wormuth added the Army is not abandoning the high school market “by any means,” but the hope is by the year 2028 that, one-third of recruits will have more than a high school diploma, rather than the one-fifth currently.

The Navy and Air Force fell short of recruiting goals for the fiscal year that ended Saturday as well, though according to officials, both branches outperformed early predictions. Marine Corps and Space Force officials said both branches would meet enlistment goals.
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As space race heats up, Biden’s Space Command decision under investigation

August 7, 2023
During the Trump administration, it was decided the United States Space Command was to be moved from Colorado to Alabama. The move would have brought 1,400 jobs and $1 billion in annual economic spending to the town of Huntsville.

However, Alabama is having to walk back its celebration after the Biden administration reversed course and announced that the Space Command will remain in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Right now, countries are advancing their turf out of this world. The U.S., Russia and China are all in a race to create new, more advanced space stations.

NASA is trying to mine the moon before China does. While China has expressed interest in surpassing the number of satellites SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has in his Starlink network. Russia is also readying its first moon lander launch since 1976.

The increased competition is why the U.S. Space Command post is so important. Its purpose is to report the military’s activities in orbit to the secretary of defense by collecting communications, controlling navigation and monitoring any potential spying from above.

It serves as the hub of the United States’ own intelligence on space exploration. The city where it’s built also benefits from it economically.

In 2019, then-President Trump’s decision to move it out of Colorado to Alabama was criticized as a political move. His critics said Trump was taking away the accolade from a blue state and handing it to a red one.

Now, Biden is getting the opposite criticism. He is being accused by lawmakers like Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, of reversing the Command’s departure from a blue state because his administration doesn’t want it moved to a red one.

Rogers has launched an investigation into whether the move was politically motivated. For now, the idea is just speculation.

Huntsville, Alabama, is dubbed “Rocket City” due to its billions of dollars in space research, development programs and NASA center. The Pentagon said its decision to keep it in Colorado Springs comes down to the military readiness of the Command.

According to the Pentagon, by moving the government facility, it would slow down its operations at a time U.S. officials are being forced to prioritize space exploration because of China’s and Russia’s recent advancements and interests.
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Midday rundown: California storms, Mafia boss caught, Starbucks expands in China

January 16, 2023

A close call at JFK airport; California braces for more flooding and landslides; a Mafia boss is caught after 30 years; and Starbucks plans to expand in China. These stories and more highlight your daily rundown for Monday afternoon, Jan. 16, 2023.

Near collision at JFK airport

New audio from air traffic control reveals the moments before a near collision on the tarmac at the JFK airport in New York.

A Delta airplane was cleared for takeoff, going 115 mph, and was told to stop as an American Airlines plane was about to cross its path. The planes missed each other by 1,000 feet.

Now the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.

California storm update

There has been little relief in California after long stretches of rain flooded the state, killing 19 people last week.

Monday, more bad weather is expected, but the end is finally in sight.

Rain and snow started falling late Sunday night across Central and Southern California. Residents are preparing for heavy rainfall and snow, with the potential for more flooding and mudslides. The region is already saturated after three weeks of storms, and motorists were battling white-out conditions in the Sierra region due to a storm there.

According to the National Weather Service, the worst of the weather is behind California, but there is still a weather threat Monday into Tuesday.

Poverty, hunger endangering children

While parts of the country are receiving record rainfall, a region in South Africa is facing a life-threatening drought. Specifically putting children’s lives at risk due to lack of nutrition and necessities.

The U.N. General Assembly has put out a dire warning, urging the world to do more. It said, every minute of every day, a child in Somalia is admitted to a hospital suffering from malnutrition.

The U.N. estimates 500,000 children could die by this summer. Not only is Somalia suffering from a devastating drought, but their government is unstable. It is in a constant battle with an al-Qaida militant group.

The U.N. said children are the ones caught in the middle of the conflict.

Starbucks expands in China

Starbucks may be a common sight in cities across the U.S., but a city in China actually has more locations than any other place in the world. Shanghai takes the top spot with more stores than any other city. And the country as a whole is on track to overtake America as the coffee retailer’s biggest market.

It’s estimated a new Starbucks cafe opens in China every nine hours. And a new report from Fast Company spells out the level of involvement the company has in growing its business there.

Starbucks isn’t just hiring workers, the company is developing farmland, and it is training more than 30,000 farmers to help develop a domestic supply chain in China.

CEO Howard Shultz has acknowledged that Starbucks is working closely with China’s Communist Party to grow its brand in the country. The company has invested $18 million in social welfare programs in China since 2006.

Top Mafia boss arrested in Italy

One of the world’s most wanted criminals has been captured. Italian Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro was arrested after being on the run for 30 years.

Denaro is accused of being responsible for dozens of murders. He is the last “Godfather” of the Sicilian Mafia.

SpaceX launches Falcon Heavy

A successful launch took place this weekend of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy. Elon Musk’s rocket is part of a classified U.S. Space Force mission. It’s the first national security space mission of the year. This rocket has taken five flights since debuting in 2018.

Elon Musk tweeted after the mission’s success, and said “that’s how we will land on mars.”

In just three days, SpaceX is expected to launch 51 Starlink satellites into orbit. They will join Musks’ other 3,000 satellites. The satellites are largely used to cast a wider net of internet service, specifically in remote off-grid locations.
PM rundown: Sen. Sasse steps down, Iran executes more protesters

January 9, 2023

An outgoing senator leaves a Senate vacancy to fill; a ban on bump stocks has been struck down by an appeals court; and children who are obese are now recommended to take weight-loss medication. These stories and more highlight your midday rundown for Monday, Jan. 9, 2023.

Sen. Ben Sasse steps down

Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska officially resigned from his post on Sunday. He leaves the seat up for grabs, which Nebraska’s governor will appoint someone to fill.

The top prospect for the position right now is former Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts. Sen. Sasse is leaving the Senate to become president at the University of Florida.

Court overturns bump stock ban

A federal appeals court has struck down a ban on bump stocks, a firearm accessory that allows a semi-automatic gun to shoot more quickly.

Bump stocks were banned by former President Donald Trump following the 2017 massacre in Las Vegas where a gunman shot and killed 58 people using rifles with bump stocks.

The appeals court voted bump stocks are legal because they don’t technically fit the definition of what a machine gun is. Machine guns are banned.

The decision doesn’t have an immediate effect on the ban because the case now moves back to the lower court to decide how to proceed. The Biden administration could take the case to the Supreme Court.

Medication, surgery for obese children

For the first time ever the American Academy of Pediatrics is recommending children with obesity take medication to lose weight. In some severe cases, doctors are also recommending children have fat removal surgery.

It’s a controversial step to try and combat childhood obesity, which affects more than 14 million children. One out of every three children are now overweight or obese.

Doctors are now recommending children 12 years or older take medications to lose weight. Some come in the form of pills, others are weekly injections. In severe cases, children ages 13 years or older can now receive referrals for weight-loss surgeries.

The academy says these options are on top of already suggested diet changes and exercise routines. They say without dramatic intervention, these children could develop high blood pressure, diabetes, and other life-long health issues.

Iran executes more protesters

Protests in Iran have been ongoing since September, and the Iranian government is not letting up despite the outcries from Iran’s people. After several controversial executions, Iran hanged two more protesters over the weekend.

According to the United Nations Human Rights Office, two men were “wrongfully hanged” for protesting the Iranian government on Saturday. They called the executions “shocking” and the trials “unfair” and said they were based on forced confessions.

Iran is receiving international condemnation.

The government has arrested nearly 20,000 protesters, more than 100 of them facing a death sentence, and already killing four. Iran’s leader has shown no signs of letting up and neither have the Iranian people who are still in protest.

Comet to be seen with naked eye

Get your binoculars ready and mark your calendar for this Thursday. A chance of a lifetime is sailing into our inner solar system.

On Thursday, you could get a rare glimpse of a comet that hasn’t been seen with the naked eye since the last ice age. It has been in hiding for more than 50,000 years. Now, it’s your chance to witness the comet as it heads towards the sun and Earth. And while it might be close enough for people to see, it will still be 26 million miles away.
US Air Force criticized over low religious exemption approvals

December 1, 2022

The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Ohio sided with around 10,000 service members from the United States Air and Space Forces this week. The ruling protects the service members from disciplinary action for not getting a COVID-19 vaccine.

According to Military.com, when the U.S. Air and Space Forces mandated COVID-19 vaccines for their nearly half million service members, around 10,000 people requested a religious exemption. That was in August of 2021.

Since then, the Air Force has approved only about 135 religious exemption requests. Those requests were only granted to those already planning to leave the service. The 6th Circuit criticized the Air Force for approving so few religious exemptions, while at the same time approving thousands of medical and administrative exemptions.

Court filings show the Air Force issued blanket denials for many seeking religious exemptions. The court also said the Air Force relied too much on its “broadly formulated reasons” to deny requests.

Many people seeking religious exemptions to vaccine mandates object to the use of fetal stem cells in making the shots. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines don’t need fetal cell lines for production, but they were tested for efficacy on a fetal cell line from a fetus aborted in the 1970s. The Novavax vaccine, which was approved in late August by the Pentagon, does not use fetal stem cell lines in its development or testing.

This week’s court ruling could set the stage for either a future trial, or this case appearing before the United States Supreme Court.
SpaceX delivers satellites, China completes space station

November 1, 2022

Space is now just a little more crowded. This week, both the United States and China launched rockets as competition between the two nations intensifies. SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy launched satellites Tuesday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. China launched a module to complete its space station.

Most of the details around Falcon Heavy’s payload of satellites are classified. What is known is mostly about the smaller of the pair, called TETRA-1. TETRA-1 was built by Millennium Space Systems, a subsidiary of Boeing. According to its website, The TETRA-1 is “a small satellite created for various prototype missions in and around geosynchronous earth orbit.” The U.S. Space Force will control the satellites.

Tuesday’s launch was just the fourth time the Falcon Heavy reached space. The SpaceX feed of the launch ended with a now somewhat familiar sight, rockets guiding themselves safely back to Earth. It’s a far cry from some Chinese rocket launches, which ended in rockets falling uncontrollably from the skies.

But, thankfully, there were no crashes this week when China sent a Long March-5B rocket into space with the Mengtian module, third and final module for China’s Tiangong space station. Mengtian reportedly arrived at the station early Tuesday morning.

The People’s Liberation Army, which oversees China’s space program, said Mengtian is a laboratory and the single largest module in space. It will provide Chinese astronauts room for zero gravity experiments. It has an airlock for exposure to space’s vacuum, and it has a robotic arm to help with extravehicular payloads.

Since China’s space agency is run by the military, the country was excluded from participating in the International Space Station. Despite that, the Chinese are collaborating with the European Space Agency for experiments aboard Mengtian. In addition, China is partnering with France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Pakistan and the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs on a number of projects ranging from aerospace medicine to microgravity physics.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Army to bolster recruiting efforts after down years

As space race heats up, Biden’s Space Command decision under investigation

Midday rundown: California storms, Mafia boss caught, Starbucks expands in China

Near collision at JFK airport

California storm update

Poverty, hunger endangering children

Starbucks expands in China

Top Mafia boss arrested in Italy

SpaceX launches Falcon Heavy

PM rundown: Sen. Sasse steps down, Iran executes more protesters

Sen. Ben Sasse steps down

Court overturns bump stock ban

Medication, surgery for obese children

Iran executes more protesters

Comet to be seen with naked eye

US Air Force criticized over low religious exemption approvals

SpaceX delivers satellites, China completes space station

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