“The need for perfection has created way too much stress and way too much fear about the future,” said James, who noted she repeatedly was told by airmen that the “system feels very punitive,” offering few rewards for good behavior but severe punishments for anything less than perfection. Second, there needs to be a distinction between training and testing. “In the current environment, there is no room for error all of the time,” said James. However, a training environment is supposed to be a learning environment where mistakes can and will happen. “I think this is wrong,” said James. “We need to correct this.” Third, there must be accountability at all levels, not only for those implicated in the ongoing cheating investigation, but also at the leadership level.
The Space Force’s work to establish a pool of at-the-ready commercial satellite capacity during a crisis is moving out of the pilot phase as the service prepares to award its next batch of contracts in 2026.
