The era of Space Force are here as a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket took the Space Force into, well, space today. The rocket bore the official Space Force logo as it carried an Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite into orbit.
The rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida this morning. The official stream of the launch started at 11:37 a.m. PT, while the launch actually happened at 1:20 p.m. PT after some technical difficulties stopped the first countdown.
ULA’s official Twitter account announced that the booster separated cleanly from the Centaur upper stage that will take the satellite on its final leg into orbit. The Centaur is scheduled to release the satellite six hours after launch.
Chief of Space Operations, Gen. Jay Raymond, tweeted out a picture of the Space Force logo on the rocket, along with the ULA logo and the American flag.
Space Force is the newest official branch of the U.S. military. President Trump re-established the United States Space Command last August, which led the way for Space Force to formally be unveiled.
The existence of the Space Force has drawn a lot of criticism and jokes, with many people wondering why we need a military branch for space, but regardless, here we are. The Space Force is here and the Star Trek-esque logo is sure to strike fear into our space-living enemies… we guess.
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