There is a body in the UN that's focused on developing responsible behaviors in space and trying to get the community of nations to agree to them. And again if you think back to the Cold War there were all of these deconfliction lines that if something looked bad you could quickly call and say hey it's okay. No not really today and that's not different than a lot of our communications these days. The Department of Defense will follow things like communicating our attention with respect to what we're doing in space, he says.
The US Space Force, established in 2019, is the first new branch of the military to be created since 1947, and its mission is vast: defend US interests in space. But what exactly is the Space Force? And what does defending US interests in space mean or look like practically?
As the nearly $900 billion defense spending bill winds its way through Congress, Wes went to the Pentagon to sit down with General David Thompson, the Vice Chief of Space Operations to learn what US interests in space are, and how the branch is developing. Bloomberg cybersecurity reporter Katrina Manson joins later to describe her visit to Space Command in Colorado and the importance of the US keeping a watch on its adversaries in zero gravity.
Listen to The Big Take podcast every weekday and subscribe to our daily newsletter: https://bloom.bg/3F3EJAK
Have questions or comments for Wes and the team? Reach us at bigtake@bloomberg.net.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.