Air Force Reserve Command’s 920th Rescue Wing and the active duty 45th Space Wing, both headquartered at Patrick AFB, Fla., officially merged their two command posts into a single joint operation on May 20. The union, for which officials from both organizations began preparing in October 2007, will serve as a test case for combined active duty-Reserve command post operations across the service. “Personnel and equipment are expensive to maintain,” said Lt. Col. Rex Meyers, 920th RW command post superintendent. “Ultimately, it’s more advantageous to the government to create one command post at each installation.” (Patrick report by SSgt. Heather Kelly)
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.