Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein told Congress Wednesday he is opposed to the formation of a separate space force. “Any move that actually ends up separating space as opposed to integrating space, I would argue is a move in the wrong direction,” he told the Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee. Though he did say, “We probably ought to keep that dialogue open,” leaving open the possibility down the road. Goldfein said a space corps is a bad idea “at this time in our history” because the Air Force is in the midst of “a strategic shift” from seeing space as “a benign environment” to treating it as “a warfighting domain.” Goldfein said, “to get focused on a large organizational change would actually slow us down” while this concept of operations transition is ongoing.
The Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile's second stage rocket performed largely as predicted by digital models in a recent vacuum chamber test, the Air Force and Northrop Grumman said, laying the groundwork for further testing that will allow the company to finalize the stage’s design in the coming months.