Whos Mission is Space

[Fjold]

Navy and Mobile Infantry

"Fleet does the flying and infantry does the dying"

[Bizcuits]

I'd imagine the Airforce will have some type of armed force in space first, but as for an actual standing force, I'd imagine they would be called Marines (going from ship to shore or shuttle to planet)

[Army GI]

why militarize space? Why screw it up? I'm sure nasa has enough paperwork as it is. Imagine the crap space would be littered with?
"Oh you need to go to the space range? Well do you have your risk assement done? You need a qualified space instructor for .0004 g shooting positions, I know you have a .0005 but thats not what first army space devision wants now. You also first have to go to your space PMI class and then your pre space range briefing. Also before you can check out your ammo it has to be gone through by space KBR and space inspectors for the lot numbers. Also have to find my space range OIC and NCOIC to safety breif you on space range as well as...." - Space POG

ROFL!!!

[Someoneelseok]

....space == navy...actually that's mostly Star Trek.

In the book Starship Troopers, I think there were two branches. The mobile infantry fought on the ground (marines?), and the branch that controlled the starships (navy), was responsible for dropping off the infantry and firing the nukes.

In the SyFy Stargate franchise, it's the Air Force that sets up off-world bases, sends teams to other worlds, runs the Battlecruisers, and drops multi-gigaton nukes on planets. Sometimes Marines are brought in when things on the ground get too hot.

In Battlestar Galactica, it was all one branch the "Colonial Fleet" and it has a hash of all branches. The commander would dispatch figthers to fight in space. And dispatch "marines" (armed with CX4's) to land on the ground or board enemy ships.

In Enders Game, it was just "International Fleet" (IF), where every country contributed to it. Every country maintained it's own branches of the military, so no change. "IF" could only deal with matters in space, the exterminating the "Buggers", stop nukes, and punish nations that tried to use nukes.

[Fjold]

"Ender's Game", "Speaker for the Dead", Ender's Shadow, great reads.

I didn't care for "Xenocide", "Children of the Mind" and "Shadow of the Hedgemon" as much.

[wytwolf]

I believe the majority of astronauts are USN. I suppose they'd send AF first, but they'd have to get extra perdiem as the accomodations aren't 4-star or above. That is, of course, if you can get them out of CONUS. They already have an astronomical budget, put it to something useful.

[Fred Foobar]

Eventually, it probably will be a Marine function. StarSHIPS and the like.

Right now, it belongs to the Air Force. AFSPC, aka Space Command.

Back in the day, I hopped a Space-A MAC flight on a military LearJet (C21) with the head honcho of Space Command. It was him, his two staff members, a CPT, and myself flying into LAX.

Sure beat the C5 I took to Germany!

[Vinz]

hard to say... these guy's


or these guy's


Hope its a nice even blend. Led by the Air Force of course.

[steelrain82]

It's not Sci-Fi anymore.. its SyFy.. lol

haha, I thought I was smoking crack and it was a different or knock off station. I was like, great scifi went HD and now I won't see it unless I pay for a cable package.

A

[tacticalcity]

Air Force already has a space command and it is huge!!! They are the only service that does, as far as I know. It's got a lot bigger budget than NASA, and missions happen daily. Experts say it's spy and communications satellites only at this point...but how would we ever really know? Why would they tell us? Why force other countries to keep up? Russias program supposedly is not up and running anymore (then again it's not like I've been keeping track or anything so that might have changed). The last I remember reading the only real competition is China who does have a huge space program that also runs daily missions, again supposedly just satalites. We could have a shuttle and be doing manned missions and just not talking about it. Satellites have to get fixed don't they? Doubt they let them just crash into the atmosphere or float off into space every time something goes wrong, and I doubt NASA spends all their time fixing super secrete spy satellites. No way to know just what exactly the scope of the Air Force mission is. Though I doubt we're putting men on the moon again or anything like that. We have too much to worry about right here on Earth. Then again...it would be pretty darn cool to learn we'd already been to Mars, and they just didn't tell us (seriously doubt it).

Once we start getting the tech to hit other systems and colonize and stuff like that, there is no question the Army, Marines, and Navy will be carving out their areas of expertise. The very idea of Colinization has Marines written all over it, with the giant space ships being run by the Navy. But then again the Air Force has 50 years of a head start. So for the foreseeable future (our lifetimes and then some), Space is likely to stay the Air Force's mission and their mission alone.

They talk about our mission in Space during Air Force boot camp in very broad terms. No details. The lack of information, and lack of answers to questions about it sparks the imagination...but nobody asks too many questions lest they sound like a nut job. At that point in boot, you're just trying to stay awake...raising your hand and asking 20 questions they wouldn't know the answers to is not on the menu not matter how curious you are. The goal in boot is not to get noticed, not get pegged as the crazy person who thinks we're already colonizing Mars.

[tacticalcity]

I believe the majority of astronauts are USN. I suppose they'd send AF first, but they'd have to get extra perdiem as the accomodations aren't 4-star or above. That is, of course, if you can get them out of CONUS. They already have an astronomical budget, put it to something useful.

Funny. Not exactly true, but funny.

When we can we spoil ourselves. But ask the Combat Controllers and Pararescue Guys if they get that stuff when they deploy? Ask guys in Mobile Aerial Ports if they sleep in hotels, tents, or fox holes? If the mission allows for it, we go all out. In my experience, the mission rarely allows for it.

I've done the 5 star resort thing once (which was a total fluke - it was supposed be tent city living but there was an issue with the base commander so we stayed at the only other available lodging - score!). Done the tent city thing like crazy, and done the fox hole thing a couple times.

You're just upset that instead of the word "rarely", your branch of the service would insert "almost never". I saw more than few Army Rangers and Marines living it up in Europe. So "never" doesn't apply.

[nagorb]

Waste of my money. With that said, Marines.

[RANDO]

space coast guard