United States Space Command

United States Space Command
United States Space Command
	Seal of United States Space Command
Active	23 September 1985 – 1 October 2002 (16 years, 10 months); 29 August 2019 – present (5 years, 2 months)
Country	United States
Type	Unified combatant command
Role	Space warfare
Part of	Department of Defense
Provisional headquarters	Peterson AFB, Colorado, U.S.
Website	www.spacecom.mil
Commanders
Commander	GEN James H. Dickinson, USA
Deputy Commander	Lt Gen John E. Shaw, USSF
Command Senior Enlisted Leader	MGySgt Scott H. Stalker, USMC
Insignia
Flag
Army element shoulder sleeve insignia
Army element distinctive unit insignia

United States Space Command (USSPACECOM or SPACECOM) is a unified combatant command of the United States Department of Defense, responsible for military operations in outer space, specifically all operations 100 kilometers (62 miles) above mean sea level. The U.S. Space Command, is responsible for the operational employment of space forces, that are provided by the services of the United States Armed Forces, predominantly the United States Space Force.

Space Command was originally created in September 1985 to provide joint command and control for all military forces in outer space and coordinate with the other combatant commands. SPACECOM was disestablished in 2002, and its responsibilities and forces were merged into United States Strategic Command.^[6] A second incantation of Space Command was established on 29 August 2019, with a reemphasized focus on space as a war-fighting domain.

Mission

Space Command's mission is: "To conduct operations in, from, and through space to deter conflict, and if necessary, defeat aggression, deliver space combat power for the Joint/Combined force, and defend U.S. vital interests with allies and partners."^[2]

Organization

United States Space Command has two subordinate components. The Combined Force Space Component Command is responsible for planning and conducting global space operations, while also providing space effects to the other combatant commands and U.S. allied partners. Joint Task Force–Space Defense is responsible for conducing space superiority operations.^[2]

Structure

Combined Force Space Component Command (CFSCC), Vandenberg Air Force Base, California

Combined Space Operations Center (CSpOC), Vandenberg Air Force Base, California
Missile Warning Center (MWC), Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, Colorado
Joint Overhead Persistent Infrared Center (JOPC), Buckley Air Force Base, Colorado
Joint Navigation Warfare Center (JNWC), Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico

Joint Task Force–Space Defense (JTF–SD), Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado

National Space Defense Center (NSDC), Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado

Service components

As a unified combatant command, Space Command has a number of service components that provide forces to it.^[7]

Relationship with the United States Space Force

United States Space Command (USSPACECOM) is the unified combatant command for all military space operations, while the United States Space Force is the military service responsible for organizing, training, and equipping the majority of forces for U.S. Space Command. The Space Force's service component to Space Command is Space Operations Command, providing the majority of space forces. U.S. Space Command also consists of smaller amounts of forces from the United States Army, United States Marine Corps, United States Navy, and United States Air Force. This mirrors the relationship between the Space Force's predecessor, Air Force Space Command, and U.S. Space Command (and between 2002 and 2019, United States Strategic Command).^[13]

History

First establishment: 1985–2002

United States Space Command was established in as a functional combatant command 1985 to provide joint command and control of the Air Force, Army, and Navy's space forces, as well as prepare for the implementation of the Strategic Defense Initiative.^[14]^[15]

In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, the armed forces' focus on homeland defense and counter-terrorism was significantly increased, which resulted in space being deemphasized. It was in this context that the unified command plan was reevaluated, resulting in U.S. Northern Command being established for the defense of the North American continent, while U.S. Space Command was merged with U.S. Strategic Command, where its responsibilities were absorbed into the Joint Functional Component Command for Space and Global Strike. In 2006, this would be replaced by the Joint Functional Component Command for Space, and in 2017, be reorganized as the Joint Force Space Component Commander.^[16]

The Army components for the first formation of Space Command were the Army Space Agency (1986–1988); Army Space Command (1988–1992); and Army Space and Strategic Defense Command (1992–1997), which eventually became today's Army Space and Missile Defense Command. Up until 2002 Naval Space Command was the naval component, and Air Force Space Command the USAF component.

Second establishment: 2019–present

The 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, which was signed into law in 2018, directed the re-establishment^[17] of U.S. Space Command as a sub-unified combatant command under U.S. Strategic Command; however, in December 2018, the Trump administration directed that U.S. Space Command instead be a newly established, full unified combatant command, with full responsibilities for space war-fighting, which at the time, was under the authority of U.S. Strategic Command.^[18]^[19]

On March 26, 2019, U.S. Air Force General John W. Raymond was nominated to be the commander of the second establishment of USSPACECOM, pending Senate approval.^[17]^[20] In 2019 the Air Force released that the list of finalists for the Headquarters of Space Command were Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, Schriever Air Force Base, Peterson Air Force Base, Buckley Air Force Base, Vandenberg Air Force Base, and Redstone Arsenal.^[21] U.S. Space Command was officially reestablished on August 29, 2019 during a ceremony at the White House.^[22] The former Joint Force Space Component Commander was dissolved and folded into Space Command. Following the creation of the United States Space Force in December 2019, the Department of the Air Force widened its search for a location of Space Command's permanent headquarters.^[23]

USSPACECOM has two subordinate commands: Combined Force Space Component Command (CFSCC), and Joint Task Force Space Defense (JTF-SD) with commanders AF Maj. Gen. Stephen Whiting, and Army BG Gen. Tom James, respectively.^[24] CFSCC plans, integrates, conducts, and assesses global space operations in order to deliver combat relevant space capabilities to Combatant Commanders, Coalition partners, the Joint Force, and the Nation. JTF-SD conducts, in unified action with mission partners, space superiority operations to deter aggression, defend U.S. and allied interests, and defeat adversaries throughout the continuum of conflict.^[2]^[24]

On August 2020, In the meeting of the National Space Council, acting Director of National Intelligence announced ''in case of an attack on the U.S. satellites the operational control of intelligence community assets will be in the ambit of the military'', resulting in the National Reconnaissance Office being operationally subordinated to the commander of U.S. Space Command in matters of space defense.^[25]

In January 2021, it was announced that Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama was the preferred final location for U.S. Space Command. The other locations in contention were Kirtland Air Force Base, Offutt Air Force Base, Joint Base San Antonio, its interim location at Peterson Air Force Base, and Patrick Space Force Base.^[26] However, it was later reported that Redstone Arsenal was only chosen because of political pressure by then-President Donald Trump, and that in both of the base competitions Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado, both the original and interim location of Space Command headquarters, was the preferred location. ^[27]

Commanders

Note: The numeric order of the commanders were reset due to the second establishment being considered a different command than the first.