CNN and other media outlets are reporting that Vice President Mike Pence will speak at the Pentagon on Thursday about the Space Force. We asked the Vice President’s office for confirmation, but did not receive a reply by press time. We will update this article if/when we do. Secretary of Defense Mattis addressed the Space Force issue during a press gaggle today. [UPDATE, August 8: An Administration official confirms to SpacePolicyOnline.com that the Vice President will deliver remarks at the Pentagon on August 9 regarding creation of a Space Force.]

Pence chairs the White House National Space Council, which advises and assists the President regarding civil, commercial and national security space policy and strategy.

As we have been reporting since March, President Trump has become very keen on establishing a “Space Force,” although exactly what he means is still coming into focus. Presumably that will be the subject of Pence’s remarks and perhaps release of an interim report required by Congress last year on a plan to create a separate military department responsible for national security space activities. The so-called “Shanahan report,” after Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan, was due to Congress on August 1, but was delayed.

What we know so far is that the President wants a sixth military service that is “separate but equal” from the Air Force, not part of the Air Force as the House unsuccessfully proposed last year. The House called it a Space Corps, analogous to the Marine Corps within the Department of the Navy.

The Senate, the Pentagon and the White House did not agree. The compromise in the FY2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was the Shanahan report. The interim report was due on August 1 and the final report on December 31, 2018.

Congress did not require a Space Corps or a Space Force in the FY2019 NDAA either, which cleared Congress last week. The bill does make other changes, however, that some are characterizing as the first steps towards a Space Force. They include:

Establishing a U.S. Space Command as a subunit of U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM)

Developing a plan to establish a separate alternative process for space-related acquisitions

Developing a plan to improve the quality of the space cadre within the Air Force

Developing a space warfighting policy and plan that identifies joint mission-essential tasks for space as a warfighting domain

Pentagon and Air Force leaders strongly opposed the idea of a Space Corps, viewing it as antithetical to their ongoing efforts to cut overhead costs and to integrate, rather than segregate, the military services for joint warfighting in all domains (land, sea, air, space and cyber).

Publicly, at least, that changed on June 18 at the third meeting of the National Space Council where President Trump turned to Gen. James Dunford Jr., Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and specifically directed him to “immediately begin the process” to create a Space Force.

Secretary of Defense James Mattis was asked at a press gaggle today about creating a combatant command for space and whether that is the same as a separate service. A transcript of the exchange is posted on DOD’s website.

Mattis strongly supported creating a combatant command for space. USSTRATCOM is a combatant command, so creating a U.S. Space Command as a subunit could be a step in that direction. The Pentagon had a separate unified U.S. Space Command as one of its 10 combatant commands from 1985-2002. It was abolished as part of the reorganization of U.S. unified combatant commands following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. At the time, the number of unified combatant commands was capped at 10 and with creation of a new U.S. Northern Command, one had to be deactivated. U.S. Space Command was the one. Many of its responsibilities were transferred to USSTRATCOM.

As for creating a separate service, Mattis said he does not have all the answers yet.