Congress has approved and the president has signed legislation to create the United States Space Force.
This sixth branch will start out as a department of the U.S. Air Force in the way that the U.S. Marine Corps is a department of the U.S. Navy.
In his remarks the president mentioned it was 50 years from Kitty Hawk to the launch of USAF and it was 50 years from the first lunar landing to launch of Space Force. Cool symbolism.
Some info: 12/21/19, Space.com, Trump Officially Establishes US Space Force with 2020 Defense Bill Signing.
A few more details from Air Force Times on 12/21/19: The Space Force is officially the sixth military branch. Here’s what that means.
Article says USAF officials report an initial rush of people wanting to get into USSF. Initial staffing will be to move everyone in Air Force Space Command into USSF. Uniforms, ranks, personnel systems will remain the same until the new service can develop its own systems and procedures.
The U.S. Space Command will remain as a combat command, presumably a unified command.
Unofficial, off-the-record comments indicate the goal is to stand up USSF in 18 months, in contrast to the 3 years it took to convert the U.S. Army Air Forces (name of Army’s flying operations during WWII and successor of U.S. Army Air Corps) into the United States Air Force.
There will be the obligatory 1,001 jokes about space cadets and the expected official service song before the proud new service stands on its own on a routine basis.
In the meantime, lift a toast to the new United States Space Force!