- As of December 20, the US military officially has a Space Force.
- It will exist within the department of the Air Force and support US Space Command, but many more details are still being worked out - including which Air Force bases are getting new names.
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The US's long-awaited Space Force was officially established on December 20, when President Donald Trump signed the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act.
Space Force was created from US Air Force Space Command but is still part of the Air Force, much like the Marine Corps is a part of the Navy Department. Space Force is not meant to put troops into space but will provide forces and assets to Space Command, which leads US military space operations.
The secretary of the Air Force has to tell Congress by February 1 how Space Force will be organized and its expected funding needs. But there are still "thousands and thousands of actions that are going to have to take place" over the next 18 months, Air Force Gen. Jay Raymond said on December 20
Among those is the renaming of Air Force bases to reflect the space mission, according to Raymond, who is head of US Space Command and will lead Space Force as its first chief of space operations.
"We do have a plan to rename the principal Air Force bases that house space units to be space bases," Raymond said.
"I just want to point out, though, that we will rely very heavily on the Air Force to operate those bases," he added. "But we'll work to rename those to match the mission of the base."
Raymond mentioned five Air Force bases that could be renamed - Patrick Air Force Base, for example, could become Patrick Space Base - but he said "his list wasn't necessarily all inclusive," Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said in an email last week, adding that the service was "still working through the details" and didn't currently have any other information about renaming bases.
Below, you can see some of the bases that may soon have new names.