Tag Archives: Mike Pence

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, a 2019 Wash100 winner, will announce the agency’s initial plan to bring astronauts back to the surface of the moon by 2024, Space News reported Tuesday.

The White House and the Department of Defense have issued a new policy framework to protect U.S. forces and allies from missile threats posed by rogue states and other potential adversaries, U.S. Strategic Command reported Thursday. President Donald Trump released the 2019 Missile Defense Review with Vice President Mike Pence and Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan on Thursday at the Pentagon.

President Donald Trump issued Tuesday a memorandum that orders the establishment of a unified combatant command that would focus on space. Trump directs Defense Secretary James Mattis to nominate commander and deputy chiefs for U.S. Space Command, according to a White House memo published Tuesday.

The U.S. Air Force is calling on Congress to allocate supplemental funding to rebuild Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida following the damage caused by Hurricane Michael in October, the military branch said Friday.

Defense Secretary James Mattis said that the Defense Department is doing all it can to carry out President Trump’s instruction to establish a Space Force, Defense One reported Wednesday.

Speaking before the media at the Pentagon on Nov. 21, Mattis said defense officials are “trying to produce what the president wants, which is a Space Force capability.” However, the President had initially called for the formation a Space Force to be a new, independent military service. An Oct. 26 memo from the White House revealed the Trump Administration is considering alternative organizational arrangements.

President Trump is appointing Joan Virginia O’Hara, former principal deputy executive secretary and deputy chief of staff for the National Security Council, to serve as the NSC's executive secretary.
Prior to assuming her role in July, O'Hara advised Vice President Mike Pence on national security and foreign policy matters, the White House said Friday. She also served six years with the House of Representatives' Homeland Security Committee, having previously held the role of general counsel.

Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan has said the creation of a “space force” as the sixth service branch is “absolutely necessary” to ensure the country’s superiority in space, Defense.gov reported Wednesday. “The U.S. military is the best in the world in space, but our adversaries have taken note and are actively developing and fielding capabilities to potentially deny our usage of space in crisis or war,” he said Tuesday during the National Space Council’s fourth meeting at Fort Lesley J. McNair in Washington, D.C.

Vice President Mike Pence has said the establishment of a “space force” as the sixth military branch seeks to address the “lack of centralized leadership and accountability” over programs that aim to promote national security in space. Pence said Tuesday at the National Space Council’s fourth meeting at the National Defense University that the council would vote on six recommendations for the proposed roadmap to form the new service, which he says would help sort out the "fragmented responsibilities" over national security space initiatives.

A draft policy directive would direct the Defense Department to hand over to the Office of Management and Budget by Dec. 1 a legislative proposal to establish a “space force” as a separate service branch, SpaceNews reported Monday. The proposed Space Policy Directive-4 obtained by the publication would require DoD to submit a budget plan for the space-focused service for inclusion in the president’s fiscal 2020 funding request.

The National Space Council will discuss proposals to establish a space-dedicated service branch at a meeting scheduled for Oct. 23, Space News reported Monday. Vice President Mike Pence said in a tweet that the meeting will cover existing progress and steps leading to the development of a Space Force.