President Donald Trump launched the Pentagon's new Space Command Tuesday, an effort to better organize and advance the military's vast operations in space that could cost as much as $800 million over the next five years. “I direct the establishment, consistent with United States law, of United States Space Command as a functional Unified Combatant Command,” Trump said in an executive memorandum to Secretary of Defense James Mattis. Vice President Mike Pence, speaking at Cape Canaveral Tuesday, said the new space command “won’t end there.”

Pence said “in the days ahead, President Trump will also sign a new space policy directive that will lay out our plans and our timeline to create the new sixth branch of the armed forces, the US Space Force.”

“We’re working as we speak with leaders in both parties in Congress to stand up the United States Space Force before the end of 2020,” Pence said.
U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive memorandum to re-establish the United States Space Command.