The Pentagon will not be instructed to create a militarised space unit — known as the Space Corps — under the negotiated version of the Fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, congressional representatives said recently.
In the latest version of the defense policy bill, lawmakers removed language requiring such an overhaul of the Air Force’s space mission, but still required a study of the idea and also backed changes to the management of the space cadre, the staffers said during a background briefing on Capitol Hill.
Under the proposed legislation, the Space Corps would have served under the direction of the Air Force much like the Marine Corps serves under the direction of the Navy. But the military branch would have had its own chief, equal in rank to that of Chief of Staff of the Air Force.
That means the newly created Air Force A-11 Deputy Chief of Staff for Space Operations directorate — touted by Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson as an important change in the wake of a push from Capitol Hill to create a Space Corps — is no longer necessary, the aides said.
“We eliminated the principal adviser for space, we eliminated the Defense Space Council and we eliminated the A-11,” a staff member said.