Trump’s US Space Force proposal could be grounded before taking off

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US President Donald Trump is calling for a United States Space Force by 2020. "When it comes to defending America," he says, "it is not enough to merely have an American presence in space, we must have American dominance in space."

Vice President Mike Pence and US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis say it’s a matter of national security, because space is already "a contested war-fighting domain."

They cite American intelligence warnings that China and Russia are developing ultra-fast, hypersonic space weapons.

Keith Cowing, an editor of space website NASA Watch, an astrobiologist, and a former rocket scientist, says the concept isn’t new.

"The US, like Russia and China and many other countries, have had a military interest and presence in space for well over half a century. Some people say you need something called a space force, to show our intent to be interested in this whole notion of defending ourselves in space."

"And other people say we are already doing it. And to a certain extent this is a marketing issue: 'Well now we have a space force, does that mean we are more serious than we were before?’” Cowing added.

"Some may argue that we are already spending money on this. We are already aware of other threats from other countries. We are already focused on that."

President Donald Trump's administration will call on Congress to allocate eight billion US dollars over the next five years to establish the US Space Force as the sixth branch of the military, US Vice President Mike Pence said on August 9, 2018./ VCG Photo

The Trump administration says the space force would be a new, sixth branch of the US military. However, it is up to Congress to approve and create a new military branch. Cowing says there might not be enough support, especially since a White House marketing push followed the Pentagon announcement.

"The big question is, are we just going to waste money? I mean do they have new uniforms? Minutes after the announcement on Thursday, the Trump 2020 presidential campaign put an email out and said 'pick a logo for space for us.' So it’s a little unraveling to see political people thinking we can just sell hats and T-shirts."

Other concerns among scientists and space watchers, Cowing says, is taking a civilian space program and morphing it into a military mission. NASA, as a civilian space agency, works in tandem with other nations on research and the International Space Station.

Cowling says, “With all the terrestrial political nonsense that’s going on, the one place that seems to be completely isolated from this is the International Space Station. Everyone gets along in space."

"Maybe we ought to be looking at what’s going on up there and apply it back down to what we are going here on Earth."