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Pentagon announced that Navy Reserve Cmdr. Duane G. Wolfe, 54, of Port Hueneme, Calif., died May 25 from injuries suffered as a result of an improvised explosive device attack on his convoy southeast of Fallujah. Wolfe, who had deployed to the US Army Corps of Engineers’ Gulf Region Division in Iraq, served as the civilian deputy commander of the 30th Mission Support Group at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., where he had worked for 24 years. In a May 28 Vandenberg release, Col. Rick Wright, the 30th MSG commander, said, “Duane’s death will leave a hole in the Mission Support Group that can never be filled; he was a great team member and an even greater friend.”
A new White House policy calls for the Pentagon to craft plans for additional space launch facilities to support a projected increase in launch demand that could see the U.S. supporting as many as 1,000 launches by 2030, more than a fivefold increase from 2025.