Transcripts For CSPAN3 Discussion On Space The U.S. Military 20240712

Flying military satellites. This event is hosted by space news. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks everyone for joining us. Were happy to have you. And wed like to welcome our panelists. Good afternoon general sean, Major General john sean joining us from Vandenberg Air force base. Welcome, can you hear us. I can hear you. Can you hear me . Perfect. So Major General john shaw is the commander of the Space Operations command under the u. S. Space force and hes also the commander of the combined force Space Component under u. S. Space command. So general shaw, im sure this was a very exciting weekend. You commanded the task force 45 that was responsible for being on alert in the event that the nasa astronauts had to be rescued. So i guess maybe if you wouldnt mind starting walking us through what happened with this launch and also telling us more broadly in the Space Force Im sure a lot of people ask you what do you do in the space force and im sure you tell them everything that you do, we provide satellite communications, we provide gps, missile warning, you provide weather services. But not a lot of people understand that you also provide support for human space flight. So maybe tell us, walk us through the mission on saturday and what were some of your big takeaways, thank you. Thank you sand raw and brian and to Northrop Grumman for hosting this and greetings from the coast of california. Thank you for this opportunity. And while you asked me a lot of things up front so ill talk for a little bit. Let me say it was not only a really incredible weekend, it has been an incredible month. The month of may, of 2020, not only did we have demo mission two and dragon over the weekend but earlier this month we launched an x37 from Cape Canaveral as well. We spent the entire month of may with an open window for people in the air force to potentially transfer into the space force. That window closed last night at midnight. And now i think our personnel experts are going through the process of seeing who applied and who do we have that may be a candidate to transfer into the space force. And then on top of that, we had two space force recruiting commercials in the month of may. I thought they were cool to watch and interesting and the ops senor that shows up in the commercials is out here at Vandenberg Air force space, it is the operations center, the new one well move into later this year. And then i couldnt finish by not acknowledging we also had the netflix version of space force make its debut in may also. Quite a month. And so brian, i dont know how i think you need a special edition of space news just to capture all of those things. But i need to say with all of that, we continued as a space force and u. S. Space command with the expertise of our space professionals to continue to do Space Operations worldwide in the midst of the pandemic that is affecting all of us right now. And im most proud of that fact and what we were able to do in may of 2020. All right. So, sandra, let me clarify the task force or the commander of task force 45 is brigadier who will take to you in a minute and would you like to set the stage and address your question about responsibilities here at Vandenberg Air force space. So, yes, the dragon capsule launch, remarkable thing to watch. I have a front re seat here at the combined space center here and we did have an Important Mission that well talk about through the lions share of this webinar of our support to Personnel Recovery, potential Personnel Recovery for the astronauts. But the department of defense has been supporting space flight from the beginning. 60 years ago when we were first sending humans into space, the department of defense was supporting that and weve done it through the entire history and were proud to support nasa in that regard. What happened this past weekend is a change. It is marked a new era not only for nasa but also for us in supporting them. Let me what you those changes are from my perspective. First organizationally were in a different place than during the shuttle era or during the mercury, gemini and apollo era. We have and should point back to in 2019 two gargantuan events happened in regard to space for our nation. The first on december 20th was space force. And that is cause caught the attention in the media recently and standing up the six branch of the United States military. But we should also not forget on the 29th of august we stood up the United States Space Command. We restood it up. We had stood down in 2002 and stood it back up again last year and that was a massive event. So i think one way to look at this if george lucas were to do a documentary, he would title it the rise of space force and the return of Space Command, two things that happened in 2019. So why does that matter for us . U. S. Space command inherited what were u. S. Strategic commands responsibilities for support to man space flight. General raymond in his hat as commander of the United States space kpland is assigned the duties by the command plan down to us from the president , he was assigned the duties as the manager of dod support to human space flight. And in my role as a component commander, so im an operational level commander within the United States Space Command as the combined force Space Component commander, as operational duty those fall on me to command and control all of the forces and capabilities and events that might surround a possible support and event that needs support to human space flight. That is my role in that regard, sandra, as you asked. I also have other roles we could talk about later because i dont want to lose focus on this get to general chessen and Lieutenant Colonel and i am fighting in other National Security needs around the globe. In an operational context in my role there. I also work for general raymond in his other hat as chief of Space Operations as the commander of Space Operations command, which was what 14th air force was redesignated as. There was a lot of paperwork that went on in the end of last year. I was a 14th air commander in space force and then i bam became the commander of space cooperations command and that means all of the space forces presented to the United States Space Command fell under me in that regard as well and that includes the 45th space wing and debt three who youll hear from today. And so i have again a great front row seat in being able to wear both hats in this job that i have here at Vandenburg Air force base. That involved more than the personal recovery mission. Weve been supporting human space flight tor decades, even during the post shuttle era by providing awareness to the International Space station. So if there is a piece of debris that might come close to the International Space station, our Space Surveillance Network that works for me and in my joint hat will detect that and well noti notify nation nasa and well make adjustments so weve been doing that for a long time. But there are others beyond that lunch just what was done down in florida that is worldwide. We set up sat com networks to recover globally to allow them to talk and that is Something Else we had to do. There is an International Partnership to this. We were in touch with other Space Operations centers letting them know what was going on and i would like to thank the United Kingdom and they helped us with our space awareness analysis so make sure we had a good window for a safe launch for the dragon to make it to the International Space station. So it is a beg team effort and the nerve center was here at combined Space Operation center so that is organizationally how were lined and different than in the past. A second way this is different, last weekend was different for us was the methodology. Its true weve said the first time we returned to space from american soil since 2011, the shuttle era. But were not using shuttle. Were using a capsule again. So we really have to go back to 1975 to remember when we were last supporting capsule for personal recovery operations an that is a whole different profile in terms of Mission Planning and contingency scenario than the shuttle. The shuttle could maneuver and possibly land at an airfield and that required support. The capsule doesnt have that maneuverability but has the possibility of landing just about anywhere and can land just about anywhere. The ability to support that as general chesson and colonel thompson will talk about, that is different. So we had to back to the future and go back to the capsule era. Another thing that is different in the early stage of human space flight we supported three capsules in a serial fashion. We had mercury and gemini and then apollo and the recovery forces learned how to one recover one capsule and then another and then up until 1975 that is the capsule they focused on. Now they have to focus on training for three capsules simultaneously. They trained for the shuttle last this past weekend and training for possible recovery of the star liner capsule being provided by boeing. And theyre also training for possible recovery of the orian capsule that nasa is developing. So we put a lot on their plate to potentially recover astronauts from any three capsules and theyre all different to some degree. And then ill go more thing that is different that made and put us in a new era is technology is different. It was different than in 2011 and much different than it was in 1975. We have gps today. We didnt have that in 1975. That could aid in our recovery. We have sat com networks around the globe that are much more robust than in 1975 to enable a global footprint for a possible recovery and rescue operation. And we also have c17s. We didnt have those in 1975 and they provide speed and a global reach and the ability of a platform to deploy para rescue forces from that platform that we didnt have in 1975. And you put all of these things together that i just laid out, were in a human space flight and supporting nasa and with that i would like to turn it over to Brigadier General chesson. Hes in charge of the recovery forces worldwide to conduct those operations as needed and then i would from an operational perspective would provide any support he needed from other commands that we coordinate with or other forces but he was at tip of the spear and even more so Lieutenant Colonel thompson so i would like to turn it over to them to talk more about the operation. Thank you so much for that overview, general shaw. And of course Brigadier General chess is the commander of the 45th space wing. Commander of the eastern range. Commander of task force 45. So welcome from Patrick Air Force base. Thank you for joining us and please tell us and walk us through the mission on saturday, how did it go and at what point did you know that things were going well and you just didnt need to do anything else . Well, hey, sandra, great to see you again and thanks for allowing us to be here. General shaw, thanks for allowing michael and i to be a part of this. And so this, as general shaw said, may is an incredible month with the launch of space force 7 and the last couple of weeks or years preparing for the next launch but the last couple of weeks of preparing for this specifically. And it is interesting being the commander of the 45th space wing and task force 45, we had a lot of different roles on wednesday and then on saturday. And first off we had our normal launch roles that we do providing what we like to say is Public Safety and resource protection. So we were responsible for that. My Vice Commander colonel brandy walton was the launch Decision Authority for this. On wednesday it was our weather folks that had to say that the weather just wasnt right for that launch. But on saturday the weather cooperated and the best weather forecasters in the world were able to provide us the need, the information we needed to make the right decisions. And then of course we also have mission assurance. And so we were right there alongside with the spacex partners and nasa to make sure that the mission was going. On the launch side, it actually happened to be a pretty busy count at the end. We had weather issues that we were awaiting for and weather didnt clear until about 30 minutes prior. And then unusual for the eastern range, we had some range issues at the end and the incredible folks that work the instruments were able to fix those to make sure we had a green range and then working some issues with spacex to make sure we had all of the right data. So busy launch. Once we got four minutes to go, i knew we were good and my activity was focused on task force 45 where the men and women of detachment three and airmen across the air force came together and across the world actually. We had forces here at Patrick Air Force base and in charleston and hawaii that were ready to do what they needed to do if the astronauts got into trouble. We were prepared. The team has been prepared for five years. Debt three has been preparing for five years for this day. And theyve had a long history. Detach. Three and the human space flight and doing the soyuz to help out if there was an issue during takeoff and landing. So this team is a bunch of rescue experts and do an incredible job and Michael Thompson will talk about what theyre doing. I cant say any more how proud i am of the men and women of the 45th space wing and the task force 45 for the efforts over the last couple of weeks and specifically this weekend up to docking and then watching our two astronauts, bob and doug, into the International Space station for me here and everybody at the Cape Canaveral space station. Will you have to deploy an operation when they return . Yes. So were on the hook to be ready for when they come back down. And Michael Thompson can talk to you more about the details of that. But, yes, we have to be prepared as they deorbit back down and hopefully everything works out and spacex can get the capsule themselves. But again if there was an afoll anomaly our team has to be prepared to execute that rescue. Before we go to Lieutenant Colonel Michael Thompson the commander of the 45th Operational Group detachment three, there is a video that we would like to show that shows what you do. If that is okay, lets go and see the video first. That is perfect. With the retirement of nasa Shuttle Program in 2011, the u. S. Is not seen human space flight from its soil in almost a decade. The airmen detachment three have stayed Mission Ready and been there since the beginning of human space flight. From red stone rockets to the launch vehicles of today, they oversee launch rescue force for all manned space Flight Operations and ensuring the safety of our nations astronauts. Leading up to the return of human space flight, the team has bhn training and working with spacex, nasa and boeing to prepare for any type of launch rescue. This training allows our team to work with and demonstrate to current and future Mission Partners and our nation our continued ability to ensure that an astronauts worse day is not their last day. Thank you, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Thompson, so have you been training the teams for the whole five years . How long have you been doing it and what are some of the highlights for you . Thanks, sandra. That was a great video. Appreciate putting that together and showing that. Because it does a great job of showing what the team is going to do on that day if theyre called upon. So ive been here for just over two years now. Been the commander here. Came from an operational unit im an hc130 pilot by trade. So the last two years have been the Fourth Quarter getting ready for this. Weve been working with boeing and spacex, especially spacex over the last year as we finalize and put the finishing touches on the ttp for the rescue scenario. The organization here, were pretty small. Were only about 30 personnel here at the det. So the work has been with the small corp. When we get ready for the mission, task 45 stands up and we have about 150 peek to execute the mission. In contrast, in the apollo era, the late apollo stage was almost 6,000 personnel that had 24 aircraft and seven navy vessels that were used to execute this mission. Today we posture like i said 150 members. A total of eight aircraft. And three different locations. So weve got folks that posture here at patrick and Joint Base Charleston and hickham to execute the mission. Over the last couple of years weve been putting those plans together. We went through this last weekend. It went exactly as we had planned. We were on alert. General talked about the countdown, some of the lastminute range instrument that went through and then once those nine merlin engines fired up, that is when our mission began. So were on the hook three hours prior to that for some med evac support. But once the rocket lived off, that is really when our team got into their heightened alert posture and was ready to respond. It is exciting to see that. The team of professionals here is some of the best. When we talk about combat search and rescue, professionals worldwide, these are the men and women that we look to. The same para rescue men that are saving lives in the combat theater in iraq have been in afghanistan doing global ops, those are the same rescue men that are here executing this mission. So it is really exciting to be part of this mission. Part of history again. And ensuring the safe return of our astronauts. The rescue motto in combat is the same as civil search and rescue and same as here. These things that we do that others may live. And it is humbling to be part of that culture and to execute this for the nation. So colonel thompson, have you already been training with the starliner vehicle . I know we still dont know when it will fly but how is that preparation going . We have been. So last april we conducted a large exercise, it was kind of a capstone event. We had the dragon sorry the star liner, we called it bp 3 and they brought it out here into the open ocean and we conducted a full training profile with the starliner. Like general shaw had mentioned each of the capsules is unique so the way we egress the astronauts from the dragon is different than the starliner which is different than the art imousous or the orian where we do contingency rescue. So were ready for orian. Were ready for the starliner and we showed were ready for the dragon. And just so that people know, your task force, but youre unit is actually very small. So when you train, do you just train with the same people . Or do you always bring different people . That is a great question. Internally we are 30 people and that includes active duty air force. One navy member. Government civilians and Contract Team and the reservists that come on. So when we get ready to do a training event we have to get orders through Space Command to task aircraft to come to patrick, we coordinate all of that and we put together the profile and the training and then my small corp of coterie here train them to do the mission and then we go out and execute that training event or that validation event here at patrick. And when you train, and when we have launches with astronauts from russia, do you also train for that, for those missions . We do. So specifically for the soyuz mission, we have a task to support air medical evacuation on a landing of the soyuz mission. So every time the soyuz comes back we posture a small team over in germany and they organize the medical team and the c17 from germany in case were needed to support that. When we have partner nations that fly on our commercial programs, because we have partners flying on the dragon and star liner. In fact there is a japanese astronaut on the crew one, well train with those astronauts and be prepared to support them on our capsule just like the russians were to support us. Like they did for colonel nick hague when they had to abort in 2018. Great. Thank you so much. So i know, brian, it has been picking up questions from the yens but i wanted to ask, before we go to brian, would like to ask Major General shaw, all of this looks it all sounds very exciting as far as all of the changes happening and human space flight and how the space force will be able to support different missions. A lot of people, since we announced this event, a lot of people have asked me and said well, what is going to happen with we have more commercial human space flight, whats going to happen when we have Space Tourism . Do you see the space force picking up any new roles in supporting the broader commercial space flight community . I think we will have to wait and see what happens as that evolves and how the government chooses to regulate that. I think i can safely say that our need to continue good space domain awareness will ever increase as theres more and more human activity, whether its nasa or its commercial tourism. And i think as we continue forward in many years as humans go into space, there will be a need to prepare for rescue. Someone will have to do that. Very likely, i think the department of defense will be some part that was broader team in its support to human space flight role. Yeah. I mean, you mentioned the space force commercials they rolled out the last few weeks. You said they were interesting. We see a lot of human space flight on those commercials. It sounds like maybe the message coming out of the space force is that they want people to see some connection between the space force and human space flight, even though you guys dont fly to space. Is that reasonable to say that . So the United States space force is not going to be sending humans into space for National Security purposes any time soon. Maybe a long time from now we will be doing that. But not any time soon. We will be supporting any humans that go into space for exploration in the way that was described here already today. We will absolutely be doing that. I think any images that you see in those commercials are meant to invoke an event whorizon tha transcends any of the boundaries today. Do you have any audience questions for any of the panelists . Yes, i do. I have a couple of good ones. One just really kind of builds off of what general shaw was talking about, about our future space force to deploy operators into space. The question is, what role, if any, does Space Operations command have for future lunar operations . Thats for general shaw. Sure, brian. First of all, as nasa continues with this project to bring humans into the lunar sphere, the need will stay the same way there is demand for protection of the International Space station. That will be necessary in the lunar environment, too. I expect department of defense will assist with that awareness. I also think that missions that are either whether they are scientific or civil or National Security relate ready going to extend beyond the geo sphere within the next couple decades. There will be a focus on operations that extend out to that range. Thank you. Another audience question we have is probably best directed to general shez. Since these are commercial and not nasa or dod launches, how are spacex and boeing paying the Space Operations command for your rescue support . How much do you charge for a launch and for a reentry landing . Yeah. I will start that and then i will pass it to Lieutenant Colonel thompson. All of our activities we do here and our sister wing out when we work with commercial entities, we do charge them for some of the activities that they do. I will say i used to be in this business about eight years ago and then came back. We have really done a great job of trying to get those costs down and trying to only charge them for the things that they need to be able to do their mission for any commercial, not just a commercial manned flight but any kind of commercial operation. But specifically for the dod rescue forces, one, we try to do a lot of training in that. So we can use a lot of the training funds and things to do that. But we do have to provide that information, those costs to nasa. Then they work that out with spacex. I will pass it to Lieutenant Colonel thompson to see if he has more direct information on that. Not a lot to add. The primary thing is that all of the orders and the dod support for the rescue side is on a noninterference and reimbursable basis. All of the flight hours, the tdy costs, all of the things that are specifically and directly associated with supporting this commercial crew program are funded directly through nasa. It is reimbursable. We provide those costs back to nasa. In fact, nasa has a budget that they provide us that we manage. So all of the specific rescue equipment is nasa funded. We maintain it. We take care of t. It. We employ it. Its all nasa funded as part of the commercial crew program. While were on that topic, to give people a sense of just how many people are involved on mission day, im assuming you have a team of 150 people who are ready to deploy to the landing site in a contingency operation, and they have to get there within a certain amount of time. You can talk to that. As fast as or as long as. You have 150 folks, if im not mistaken, and they have to be ready to go they had to be ready to go on wednesday last week and when the all clear sign was given that you werent launching, you had to be ready again on saturday. Is that correct . Thats for the lieutenant colon colonel. Yeah, it is. Those 150 people are between three different locations. Actually, more than that. That includes i have an lno that works at Johnson Space center. He is right next to the nasa landing support officers. I had a member next to their recor recovery director at nasa. Its not 150 all going to one location. The actual row could haecovery s small. Depending whether its here or someplace else, you have got 11 members supporting and then a nineman Guardian Angel team along with them. The force for employment is quite low. Here locally, we have a tighter response, shorter Response Time line than the c17s do. Thats because the c17s, we maintain an alert posture from launch all the way until they get the spacecraft docked and the hatch open. Any time along there, there could be an anomaly which would require the capsule to return. Those forces are on alert that entire time, which means that their response is within probably an hour for takeoff and however long it takes to get on the globe. It is going to differ based on the splashdown location. Sure. Thank you. Major general, a question for you. You mentioned that the space force is trying to inspire people, inspire the next generation. In the last month, you have been hearing from airmen that were invited to transfer to the space force. What have you heard from them . Are a lot of i know we heard numbers like 6,000, 7,000, how many are going to be transferring. Are we going to see you in blue threads . So i will confess up front that i did sign my transfer Application Form at the beginning of may and sent it to the pentagon. So now i have to wait and see if my offer to resign my commission in the air force and then accept a commission in the space force will be accepted. I have had numerous conversations with airmen, both enlisted and officer, over the month of may asking about, what does this mean . Should i do this or should i not . Those were all interesting conversations. Most of them were about what are you passionate about and what do you want to do . Life is short. I did the math. Life is short. How do you want to spend your time in service to our government and how do you want to spend your time . Those are the kinds of flavors of the conversations that we had. As for numbers, you know, i do know that thousands have put in applications. We do have a need for thousands. So i know as i mentioned at the beginning, i know our personnel experts at the pentagon are probably processing all these applications now as we speak. The process will be one of it isnt just simply numbers. It is did we get the right number of cyber professionals applying and the right number of intel professionals applying that were going to need in the space force . Then its complicated even further by where are they in their careers . Did i get enough lieutenants . Did i get enough majors . Did i get enough senior ncos . Its going to be a big process to see where we end up. Its kind of remarkable that we are as a the space force is less than six months old. It was born on the eve of the winter solstice and we arent close to the summer solstice. People applying to come into the space force and we have made decent progress in the last less than six months that is, i think, pretty good considering. Its only the beginning of a much longer journey of standing up this service. Thats great. Thank you. General, any comments . What are you hearing from your people . Are you moving to the space force . I decided to do my form on may 1st. The first day that i was eligible, i did my form. I, like general shaw, sent that off to the pentagon and are waiting to see what the secretary of the air force and chief of Space Operations say with that. Obviously, we have to be confirmed by the senate as well. Im looking forward to eventually wearing the blue threads on this uniform and seeing it happen. When i talk to folks we primarily have operators here, program management, acquisition folks and a little cyber folks. Mostly very excited about the opportunity. Just like general shaw said, what did they join the air force to do . What did they want for their outlook . I will be honest. I was excited but it was a little interesting. This month is my 28th year from when i was commissioned as second lieutenant. There was a little bit of, ive been in the air force a long, long time, and i know that will still be a part of the department of air force. Ive had many of the same conversations. Overall, theres mostly excitement. Were looking forward to it. We have to remindo ourselves were less than six months old. What are things going to be like . What are we going to be called . When we look towards the future and we think about the importance that we have and the things that we have to do to be able to protect our interests in space, most people are pretty excited about that. Great. Thank you. Brian, you have any more questions . Absolutely. Theres quite a few questions here. Lets find a good one for everybody. I had one a moment ago. Give me a second here. I will find it. Here we go. This is for Major General shaw. Could you describe briefly what u. S. Space force is and will be doing with respect to space traffic control, especially in view of the large number of leo satellites that will be on orbit over the next five to ten years . Thats a very good question. First of all, the space force and u. S. Space command continue to perform the mission of tracking what is going on in all orbital regimes. And analyzing for possible collisions that could happen. We call them conjunctions when two objects might come close to one another. And notifying any owners or operators of either of those objects of a potential collision that it may happen and in many cases operators choose to make a small maneuver to decrease the odds that such a collision would happen. That continues to be something we do. The president did sign a space policy directive last year that tries that vectors that towards the department of commerce. We have department of commerce partners here watching what we do to try to make that transition in the longer term. As someone who is focused on space war fighting in my job, i look forward to the opportunity to move space traffic to the manager of the department of commerce so we can push our focus on looking for possible threats in space and things that are out of the norm and let the department of commerce work space traffic management. I think its good for me to point out that we have had multiple launches in the last year of these proliferated low earth orbit constellations. Spacex most notably. But also one web. The first of those launches, when you had 60 satellites at a time and you are tracking them was a challenge for our folks. They never had to do that. Not on a routine basis. But we have since, as these number of launches have progressed, we have gotten better at cataloging those objects and watching them as they move from their initial deployment orbits into their final orbital position. We have learned a lot. It continues to be a challenge. We will continue to learn. We have only seen the beginning of proliferated low earth orbit. We are working with department of commerce to ultimately hand that mission to them. Thank you very much. Do you want another audience question . I wanted to ask really quickly, Major General shaw, since you were talking about space war fighting, general raymond has put out some warnings to the russians about their missile launches and being viewed at threats to u. S. Satellites. So what is the posture now that in the space force as far as identifying what are hostile attacks what are potentially just routine operations . How is your approach as far as trying to understand what threats do you really face and what do you have to prepare for . For many years now, we have been pointing out examples of where space is contested. Where potential adversaries are developing capabilities that are targeting ours or our allies Space Capabilities. I think all of the events and the ones you are referring to that general raymond talked about all point to the fact this is why we did what we did. In 2019. Why we stood up a separate combat and command. Why we have now a separate service in our military, the u. S. Space force, is because this is the new reality that space is no longer a benign demain. Its like all of the others. We are organizing ourselves for that reality. Great. Thank you. Go ahead, brian. With your next question. Sure. Major general shaw, in 2002, you coauthored a paper with pete warden that advocated dod should have the mission of Planetary Defense. A member of the audience asked, what should the space force and u. S. Space com, what should their roles be in Planetary Defense . For the benefit of our audience, you might just a quick explanation what Planetary Defense is. Planetary defense as we talk about it in the Space Community today refers to defense of the planet against after tsteroids, natural threats beyond earth orbit, near earth that could potentially collide with the earth with calamity results. The nasa has an office i think its called the office of Planetary Defense. The chief of Planetary Defense within nasa. They have had most of that focus from the United States government perspective with mandates to catalog a certain within a certain amount of time, all of the threats within our solar system to the planet. Thats what Planetary Defense is. Major shaw, when he wrote those pieces back in 2002, what he was focused on was, this sounds like its probably a mission for the department of defense at some point, since it is about Planetary Defense. I think that was well before the nasa set up their office for planetary doe fenefense. Major general shaw would say were happy to team with nasa in that regard. I think theres a lot of synergy between what we are attempting to do to better understand the space domain within the sphere, space domain awareness, for National Security purposes, and what nasa has done to try to catalog objects within the solar system, a better awareness of potential threats. And then being part of a much broader team in terms of remediation to threats or Emergency Response to an event that might happen. What i mean by that is if a small asteroid or meteor did hit the earth, there would be some sort of Emergency Management response on the part of our nation to support wherever that landed and the department of defense would be happy to be a teammate in that regard. Thank you. I wanted to ask quickly somebody emailed me a question for general shez. We see how you have been supporting launches during this pandemic. You have spoken with us multiple times about how you are doing social distancing on base and for launches with lean crews. Now we have the month of june coming up and july. You have some big missions coming up, i understand. You will have a more launches, gps3, the mars 2020 launch. Things are not going to be slowing down that much. How are you preparing . How is the situation as far as trying to support these launches under Restricted Health conditions . Thank you. Thanks. As we have talked about before, one of the great things with bringing on an automated Flight Safety system, that allowed us to make our crews much smaller. Not all of our rockets have afss yet. We still have to have those large even within that, innovation across the eastern and western range, its been going on for several years. We found ways to do less people. What that has done is allowed us to have physical distancing within our Operation Centers. We are wearing face coverings. In some of our Operation Centers where there isnt a lot of room, we take temperatures, asking Health Questions before they go in. We will continue to do that. Last saturdays launch was our 11th of the year. As we have talked about, our 90day calendar is kind of our whats happening for sure. Then we have our 12month calendar. For the rest of the year, we still have 31 launches on the rest of the calendar. That would be 42 for 2020. Six of those are National Security space payloads. Then several, as you mentioned, with the mars 2020 with nasa. Then we will have the crew one, mission with spacex. We look forward to another Operational Test with boeing and ula for the starliner. Lots of great launches coming up over the next few months. June is going to be busy. Theres no rest for the weary. We have a star link launch wednesday night. Then a couple weeks later, another star link launch. Then we are posturing towards the gps launch at the end of the month. Three on the schedule right now for july and then obviously our big mars 2020. Then we have our delta four heavy in august caring a payload. We continue to do everything. We evaluate. I have at least two times a week, sometimes three times a week i meet with our Public Health officials. We look at how locally here the state of florida is doing. We continue to make decisions to make sure that our force is healthy. Thats one of the things we had to tell folks. Its not just keeping our force healthy. Its making sure we keep our force healthy and do our mission. The men and women have been doing what they need to do with personal hygiene, staying safe, staying at home when they can and so they have done a really good job. We will continue to do that as we go through this pandemic. Thank you. General shaw, the space wings are such historic organizations. Theres been some chatter that the space force is going to change the name, that they will not be called wings anymore. Is that true . That is something thats being looked at by the leadership of the space force and the department of the air force. No final decision has been made on that. We will see. This is by the way, this is in the context of a broader cultural question about the space force and how much of its culture is derived from its heritage coming out of the air force and how much independent culture does it need to kind of strike out on for its own . This comes up its not sdwrujust the names of units. Its the name of the ranks within the space force, what will we call members of the space force . These are all things that will happen over time. We are running into the last few minutes. Brian, do you have more audience questions . Theres a lot of audience questions. One i think that people will be very disappointed if i didnt ask concerns the Netflix Series space force. Show of hands, anybody who has seen at least one episode of the series . Good. This question works then. Lets just start at the top and go on down the line. Brief answers here since were kind of coming up on the top of the hour. Are there any aspects of the Netflix Series that are a good representation of how things actually happen . I will go first. I did catch two episodes of that over the weekend. Thats a binge for me, two in a row. I thought the show had some funny moments. I have to say, there were some parts that had me concerned that the science of the show really fell short on a couple places, too. Im a fan i believe that the show the Big Bang Theory was it lasted as long and popular as it was because science was real. It treated its audience like with a little bit of high Level Education there. Space force i think could be better if it got its science right. Im telling steve, greg, get your astronautics right. We can show you the people that run the real space force and how they do their jobs. For me, i have binge watched two on friday whether thn they t and two on the weekend. Im up to four. I think theyre getting a little better as they go along. I have gotten lots of questions about whether i sing when im stressed out. I dont. Maybe theres maybe michael has some other stories of things i do when im stressed. I agree with general shaw. I think theres science parts that they could get better a little bit. It is interesting. I like to make fun of myself. So watching this is something thats kind of funny. I have recently started watching the walls as they walk by. I saw general chiltons picture. I started to look. Im looking for general shaws picture. I havent seen it yet. Im hoping that they are doing some more of that. I enjoy the show. I do think a little bit more on the accurate science would be a little bit better. We will ask the rescue forces guy what he thinks about space force netflix. Thanks. I am a rescue guy, not a space guy. Whether theres some things that are incorrect or not, i dont i cant speak to that. I will say one thing. It came up this morning that the 45th space wing, somebody sent out an email with a bunch of pictures from the launch over the weekend. One of the pictures was interesting. It had the rocket in the background. In the foreground was a tortoise. The first thing i thought of was out there picking up the lizards. Is that something to do with the turtle . Something to do with the scrub . I dont know. I laughed when i saw that tortoise. I thought of, who is out there picking up all the tortoise to make sure they dont get scorched in the launch . That was one of the humorous things i think that i applied here. Thank you for that. I have only gotten through the first three episodes. Theres questions to be answered. Sandra tells us she has watched all ten. I have. You are a fan. Its very funny. What can i say . Its funny. Do you want to bring us home with a question about the real space force, even though i think they didnt they take that twitter handle . You are space force dod. Do you want to bring us back to reality . Of course. I wanted since we have a few minutes left, i wanted to maybe get all of you, if you would like to weigh in. General shaw, i mean, people that are excited about the faspe force we hear about how much interest there is. People that want to join. Theres still some questions like, are you going to be more like the air force or are you going to have more of a joint flavor at some point . Are you interested in bringing in folks from other services . What is your thinking i know its only six months. These things take time. What is your thinking about how the space force is going to develop its own culture and stand out as an independent service, not just as a spinoff from the air force . Your thoughts on that. Yeah. I think one of the fundamental tensions or balances that the space force will have Going Forward is a balance between integration with the other services and its own independence. It has to do both. Thats a balance. I have said before, i think you heard me say that on the periodic table of military capabilities, we need space to be carbon. It has to be that element that bonds with everything else. If theres a soldier on the ground or sailor at sea or marine, whatever they are doing, space has to assist that war fighter. We cant be a noble gas off to the side of the periodic table. We have to be there and help. Thats integration. We need to do that at all levels. We need to be thinking about that. Thats the way space has to be moving forward. At the same time, we have to be able to think independently. When the air force came out of the army, one reason it came out of the army and we saw that develop over a longer period than really the standup of space force, it was independent thinking about air power that extended beyond just the battlefield. Think about it strategically and different ways of thinking about air power could be used. Space force is going to have to develop its own culture, its own thinking. The space environment is different than the other domains. Were going to have to do that. I think you will see that as the space force goes forward will be there balance between these two things that we have to do both. I hope that helps to answer your question where i think space force is going. Yes. Thank you so much. How about you, general shez . You have you are an operator. But you must have thoughts about the future and where would you like to see the space force go Going Forward . I think were off to a good start. I think we do have to build our own culture. I think we have been doing that. Air force Space Command has a history. We need to build on that. I have been fortunate to be one of the folks that have deployed in a space job to integrate Space Capabilities into the fight as the Central Command director of space forces and saw how critical that is to all of our domains. As general shaw says, i think we have to make sure that we dont separate so much that were not tied in. I dont think were on that track. I think as you asked about names and things. I think we have to chart our own course. We have to be able to build on that, to build our culture, our own doctrine and how we do things. We do things differently. I think were going to continue to do that. With the mindset that were all part of a joint team and we have to provide those affects and those integration with our other sister services. Thank you so much. Thank you for your time and for giving us all this education about what you guys are doing. Its been fascinating to hear all of this. Thank you, again. Please lets maybe do this again some time. Thanks. The Senate Commerce committee holds a hearing on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on transportation and critical infrastructure. Watch live today at 2 30 p. M. Eastern on cspan3, online at cspan. Org or listen live on the free cspan radio app. Tonight at 8 00 eastern on American History tv, a look at the great depression. Founded in 1933, during the depression, the Tennessee Valley authoritys mission was to address environmental, energy and Economic Development issues in a region suffering from soil erosion, floods, poverty and unemployment. A National Program in the Tennessee Valley is a 1936 film created by the tva to promote their efforts and to show the construction of two projects. Norris dam in tennessee and wheeler dam in alabama. Both are still operational and on the National Register of historic places. Watch American History tv tonight and over thwe