President Donald Trump holding an executive order to create the Space Force. Photo : Alex Wong ( Getty Images )

Ground Control to Mr. Trump



Ground Control to Mr. Trump

Take your Diet Coke and put your helmet on

Ground Control to Mr. Trump (ten, nine, eight, seven, six)

Commencing countdown, engines on (five, four, three)

Check ignition and may God’s love be with you (two, one, liftoff)

Per a Wednesday report by Defense One: For months, Pentagon officials have been rushing to prepare plans for an independent Space Force, a sixth branch of the military ordered up by President Trump. But since Oct. 26, they have been marching to new White House orders: go back and look at different ways to reorganize the military’s space operations.


This is Ground Control to Mr. Trump

You’ve really made the grade

And Fox & Friends wants to know whose shirts you wear

Now it’s time to ask for funding if you dare



One of the four new options is an old one, defense officials said: a space corps that would be part of the Air Force, the way the Marine Corps is part of the Department of the Navy. The proposed structure is similar to a bipartisan proposal that passed in the House but failed in the Senate last year.


This is Mr. Trump to Ground Control

I’m stepping through the door

And I’m flailing in a most peculiar way

And the stars look very Democrat today

Why the second thoughts? The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, suggested that some in the Trump administration fear that the proposed independent Space Force might not make it through Congress.

For here

Am I sitting in the White House

Far above the world

House of Reps is blue

And there’s nothing I can do

A former senior defense official said Pentagon officials would be more comfortable with a space corps within the Air Force, but feel Trump’s comments that he wants a “separate but equal” space force have given them little wiggle room.


Though I’m past one hundred thousand miles

I’m feeling very still

And I think my Space Force knows which way to go

Tell my Wall I love it very much

It knows



The four options, according to one of the officials, include: 1) an Air Force-owned space corps that includes only Air Force assets, 2) an Air Force-owned space corps that also takes space-related troops and assets from the Army and Navy, 3) an independent service that takes from the Air Force, Army, and Navy, and 4) an independent service that takes from the three services plus parts of the intelligence community.


Ground Control to Mr. Trump

Your Twitter’s dead, there’s something wrong

Can you hear me, Mr. Trump?



Can you hear me, Mr. Trump?

Can you hear me, Mr. Trump?

Can you-

... A White House spokeswoman declined to comment.

[Defense One]