The United States Space Force (or the USSF for short) is the newest branch of the United States armed forces and it has set history simply by existing. At the time of this writing, the USSF is pretty much the world's only independent space force - the first for any country in the world! Right now, it is the smallest United States armed service, consisting of eight thousand four hundred military personnel.
The USSF was brought into existence on December 20th of 2019 through the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 after this act was signed into law by then-president Donald Trump. It was the first independent military force to be created for the United States since the Army Air Forces was reorganized into the U.S. Air Force back in 1947. Technically though, there were talks about starting a space force or hints towards the idea of the United States potentially planning to have a defense force for space all the way back in the 1960s, such as with a speech from John F. Kennedy at Rice University back in September of 1962:
"Space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man. And only if the United States occupies a position of preeminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theatre of war. I do not say that we should or will go unprotected against the hostile misuse of space, any more than we go unprotected against the hostile use of land or sea." -John F. Kennedy
Currently, the space force works alongside the United States Air Force to deal with threats to the United States that might potentially come from space or the air. For example, the USSF is currently working to monitor Russian spacecraft and orbitals that are tailing U.S. government satellites and developing early warning systems to protect servicemen against missile strikes!
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