The Increasing Reality of War in Space

One day the Space Force will be the most important branch of the military you'll see, that day is far but it's not science fiction

Current USSF Guardian and Engineer here; one of the biggest reasons the USSF was established as its own branch was to consolidate space acquisitions and have a budget of its own to develop and sustain capabilities separate from the Air Force's budget - the reason being that the Air Force's primary goal is Air Power, and that always took a precedent over Space Power e.g. the F-35 got the funding over more GPS satellites. Another example was that the Army, Navy and Air Force had different SatCom networks that accomplished the same ultimate goal of communications with forces on the greound/surface (and why I feel for the operators and engineers in Del 8 who have a cluster of different programs and systems that are all managed under one roof). Great video overall to demonstrate the critical need for space for the 21st century warfighter and to demonstrate how real of a warfighting domain space has become. Via Vincimus and Semper Supra!

Part of the reason the Outer Space Treaty is so vague on "conventional" weapons in space is because astronauts often keep knives and even loaded guns on them as part of their survival kits in the event they land back on Earth somewhere like a forest full of bears.

I transferred from the US Army into the US Space Force a few years ago. I appreciate seeing more outlets realize and communicate the importance of our mission to the United States' national defense.

25:45 I really wanted the line to be "the consequences are just astronomical"

Glad to see something about Space conflict. A lot of people just don't know how important space is to day to day life and how vulnerable it is.

As a guy in the Space Force (pretty sure I was in this video too lol) thanks for taking it seriously and for making this video. Really well done.

Most people think the idea of the space force is brand new, but it isn’t The first discussion of a U.S. Space Force occurred under President Dwight Eisenhower's administration in 1958 and it was nearly established in 1982 by President Ronald Reagan as part of the Strategic Defense Initiative otherwise known as Star Wars. In essence, what’s old is New again old ideas constantly getting rehashed.

To be fair to Steve Carell he initially dismissed Space Force as ridiculous but as his team did research for the movie he realized its real life importance

genuinely surprised the words "Kessler syndrome" did not make it into this video

Correction: The ASM-135 test in 1985 was NOT a co-orbital ASAT. Co-orbital means the weapon achieves orbit prior to engaging it's target. The ASM135 was a direct-ascent ASAT, meaning it struck its target without ever entering orbit. These are two radically different classes of weapons.

I want to personally thank you, I have a presentation on space warfare tomorrow and i need a video and there were no good ones until now, you are my hero.

Space Force/Space Corps had been proposed previously to Trump signing those papers. Like nearly 2 decades previously. It was a very real and serious answer to a military need being recognized by the pentagon. The fact that it took so long tells you all that you need to know what politicians and the public think about the importance of space.

I never understood why anybody thought "Space Force" was funny. We've had a space force for years. It was just called the Air Force. We just realized that it was important enough to create it's own branch.

I have an irrational amount fear about Kessler Syndrome, because even though I'm probably too old to reach a time where space travel is affordable, the idea of our species imprisoning itself on this planet horrifies me at some fundamental level. And with the state of international relations in 2024, it feels like an inevitability.

Additional note, when India conducted a similar test it did so with extreme caution. The Chinese ASAT test in 2007, which occurred at an altitude of 865 kilometers and produced a debris field of some 3,000 objects that will linger in space for decades, the Indian demonstration appears to have produced some 400 fragments (of which about 270 are being tracked) that will decay in weeks or perhaps a few months. Both US and China had some very unkind words despite conducting similar tests.

Minor correction: GPS Block IIF reads as "Block two F"

Space warfare without space cleanup will spell doom for any future space activities

Loved seeing Thessaloniki's very own "white tower" at 3:09

2:35 Correction: The internationally defined Kármán line is defined at 100km, not 100mi.