The U.S. Air Force will set up a new directorate focused on space operations over the next two months as part of the reorganization of the service branch’s headquarters, the Air Force reported Friday.

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said Friday at the Strategic National Security Space discussion in Washington that a three-star general officer will be designated to serve as deputy chief of staff for space operations to oversee the new directorate.

The new organization will commence operations by early August and will be responsible for the consolidation of space functions from various parts of the air staff.

Wilson also wrote in an article published Friday on Defense One that the directorate will oversee the recruitment and training of air personnel involved in space missions as part of the military branch’s efforts to maintain superiority in space and prepare for any future conflict in space.

She mentioned that the Air Force secretary post was reaffirmed by Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work as the principal adviser to Defense Secretary James Mattis on space issues over the next year.

With this reaffirmation, Wilson noted that she has the responsibility to advocate and manage space-related initiatives across government agencies and service branches.

The U.S. Navy has launched an investigation into the USS Fitzgerald guided missile destroyer’s collision with a Philippine-flagged container ship that occurred approximately 56 nautical miles off the coast of Honshu in Japan early Saturday.

The impact caused significant damages to the Fitzgerald pilothouse and commanding officer’s cabin as well as flooded a machinery room and two berths for 116 sailors who were onboard the warship, Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin said in a statement published Sunday.

He noted the crew conducted damage control efforts to stabilize the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and sail it back to a U.S. naval base near Yokosuka on Saturday evening.

Japanese allies have provided support and assistance to Navy’s response efforts and the service branch has notified the families of personnel who died from the ship collision.

“We recognize that there are other organizations who have equities in this incident, and we expect they will conduct their own separate investigations. More information on any further investigations will be forthcoming,” Aucoin added.

The investigation, led by a flag officer, will cover both JAGMAN administrative and safety assessments.

The U.S. Army has outlined how it will distribute additional soldiers as part of an end strength increase mandated by the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act.

The service branch said Thursday its regular Army force will reach 476,000 soldiers; the Army National Guard will increase to 343,000 soldiers; and the Army Reserve will have 199,000 troops.

The 2017 NDAA permits the Army to maintain an end strength of 1.018 million soldiers and reverse a plan to reduce the service branch’s force size to 980,000 troops by the end of fiscal year 2018.

“These force structure gains facilitated by the FY17 end strength increase have begun, but some will take several years to achieve full operational capability,” said Brig. Gen. Brian Mennes, Army director of the force management division.

“Implementation of these decisions, without sacrificing readiness or modernization, is dependent upon receiving future appropriations commensurate with the authorized end strength,” he added.

The Army plans to establish readiness enhancement accounts in all Army components to boost manning and readiness levels in existing combat units; retain units previously slated for inactivation; and create new units and personnel increases in existing organizations in the U.S. and abroad.

The service branch expects the end strength increase to help address the capabilities gap against adversaries; meet modernization needs; and boost readiness in existing units.

NASA will move to shutter its Asteroid Redirect Mission after agency leadership defunded the project due to a lack of support from Congress, Space News reported Wednesday.

Michele Gates, ARM program director, told NASA’s Small Bodies Assessment Group at a meeting Tuesday the agency will continue to develop proposed technologies for the mission despite the cancellation of the project.

“We are in an orderly closeout phase, capturing all the good work that has been done across the team, and transitioning activities as appropriate to other potential missions or archived for future use,” said Gates.

She added the agency will preserve other elements of the ARM project such to planetary defense approaches and near-Earth asteroid research efforts.

NASA also dropped plans to award a contract for the development of an ARM robotic spacecraft bus as well as cancelled efforts to select hosted payload proposals and enlist a research team for the defunded robotic mission.

The Senate voted 98-2 Thursday to pass a bill that would enact new sanctions against Russia and require the White House to secure congressional approval before lifting any current sanctions, Reuters reported Thursday.

The proposed legislation seeks to penalize Russia for its interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections, involvement in Syria’s civil war and annexation of the Crimea region in Ukraine.

The measure covers new sanctions on Russia’s mining, energy, metals, railways and shipping projects as well as punitive actions against Russian cyber threat actors and the country’s involvement in weapons delivery to Syrian government.

The bill would also impose sanctions on Iran with regard to its ballistic missile activities that are not linked to the nuclear agreement the Arab country signed with the U.S. and other countries.

Space News also reported that lawmakers also voted 94-6 to clear an amendment to the Senate bill that would permit NASA and space launch service providers to continue to import and use Russian-made rocket engines for civil and commercial launches.

“Without passage of Amendment #250, we lose a tremendous portion of our access to space,” said Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colorado).

Gardner introduced and sponsored the amendment with Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Florida) and other lawmakers.

Russia-based NPO Energomash supplies RD-180 and RD-181 engines that run on United Launch Alliance-built Atlas 5 and Orbital ATK-made Antares rockets, the report added.