Gen. John Raymond, chief of space operations within the U.S. Space Force and a 2020 Wash100 Award winner, said the newly created service branch continues to carry out its missions amid the coronavirus pandemic, DoD News reported Friday.

The Department of Defense and NASA have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to further advance collaboration in space, DoD News reported Tuesday. The MOU was announced by Gen. Jay Raymond, chief of space operations at the U.S. Space Force and a 2020 Wash100 Award recipient, and NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. 

Lt. Gen. James Dickinson, head of Army Space and Missile Defense Command and Army Forces Strategic Command, has been nominated to serve as deputy commander of U.S. Space Command, Defense News reported Tuesday. Dickinson, who also serves as commander of Joint Functional Component Command for Integrated Missile Defense, will serve as deputy to Air Force Gen. Jay Raymond if confirmed. 

The U.S. Space Force has attained the initial operational capability of a radar system designed to help the service branch identify and track objects in orbit. The Space Fence radar is designed to boost space situational awareness across satellites, debris, depleted boosters and other orbiting objects, USSF said Friday.

President Trump has authorized the establishment of the U.S. Space Force as the sixth service branch as stated in the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, the Department of Defense said Friday.

The National Reconnaissance Office and U.S. Space Command participated in an exercise to demonstrate space defense collaboration. NRO said Friday that it joined USSPACECOM and other members of the space community to exhibit cooperative space asset protection during the 13th Air Force Space Command Schriever Wargame.

U.S. Air Force officials noted that the nation is prepared to demonstrate space capabilities to adversaries to show readiness to react to threats, Defense News reported Wednesday. “That capability needs to be one that’s understood by your adversary. They need to know that there are certain things we can do, at least at some broad level,” said Air Force Secretary and 2019 Wash100 Award winner Heather Wilson during the recent Space Symposium in Colorado.

An Air Force general said he initiated talks with SpaceX and other space launch firms about  having prepositioned cargo in space that can potentially deliver supplies to U.S. troops within a decade, Defense One reported Thursday. “I can just position in space and have a re-supplying vehicle come up and come back …

The Joint Space Operations Center has changed its designation to a Combined Space Operations Center during a ceremony that took place Wednesday at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The CSpOC will work to help identify, warn, describe, attribute and address threats to space assets, as well as aid the …

The U.S. Air Force has teamed up with the National Reconnaissance Office to build a new satellite designed to provide space situational awareness capability, Breaking Defense reported Tuesday. Gen. Jay Raymond, head of the Air Force Space Command and Joint Force Space Component commander at the Strategic Command, announced the partnership at …