At his Wednesday night (June 20, 2018) Minnesota rally, when President Trump began to explain that he was reinvigorating NASA’s human space exploration program, supporters spontaneously took up the chant “Space Force, Space Force …” President Trump responded explaining that America would now have a U.S. Space Force on par with the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Air Force. What President Trump now needs to do is appoint a Space Force advocate within the Department of Defense to argue why this is needed, conduct appropriate mission and organizational studies, and liaison with Congress and the existing Pentagon “deep state” opposing this action. This advocate needs to be a senior military officer with a distinguished career. If I had to pick a general office for this assignment, I would pick Air Force Lt. Gen. Steven L. Kwast.
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Periodically, a very interesting regional space conference is held in the central United States—the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop (TVIW). When I attended in 2016, it reminded me of the workshops Professor Gerard K. O’Neill and his Space Studies Institute held periodically at Princeton University in the 1980s.
General Kwast was an invited special speaker. Below is the video of his presentation. Having worked for the Air Force as a civilian engineer for nearly 40 years, hearing general officers was not unusual. I was expecting another mundane presentation. His talk was way beyond what I expected.
General Kwast is currently the Commander of the Air Force’s Air Education and Training Command. He has worked in the White House in the 1990s. Listen to his extended remarks.
Mike Snead is a professional engineer and Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). He is president of the Spacefaring Institute™ (spacefaringinstitute.net) and writes this Spacefaring America blog. He has formed the LinkedIn group Space Solar Power to advocate for space-based sustainable energy and the coming American spacefaring industrial revolution. He can be reached through the contact form or through LinkedIn. His technical papers are available here.