SEMPER SUPRA · GPS · WARNING · SATCOM · ORBIT
ALWAYS ABOVE
Orbital
Space Force organizes the orbital infrastructure that gives the United States global positioning, warning, communications, and space awareness at scale.
EVERY COORDINATE. EVERY CLOCK. EVERY FORCE CONNECTED.
Layers
Five mission functions turn space into military advantage: navigation, warning, communications, awareness, and orbital defense.
GPS & Timing
Space Force operates the military backbone of GPS, providing the precision timing and navigation signal used by joint weapons, aircraft, ships, financial systems, power grids, and civilian devices.
Missile Warning
Overhead infrared satellites and ground radars detect launches, characterize threats, and feed warning data to national command authorities and combatant commanders within seconds.
Protected SATCOM
Military satellite communications connect nuclear command and control, deployed headquarters, aircraft, ships, and ground units through contested environments.
Space Domain Awareness
Sensor networks track objects in orbit, monitor maneuvers, identify hazards, and help commanders understand what is happening above Earth before it affects operations below.
Orbital Defense
Guardians protect satellite constellations, harden ground networks, and plan operations that preserve access to the orbital infrastructure every modern force depends on.
Global
Select a command. Space Force turns satellites, sensors, launch, and networks into operational effects for the joint force.
Space Operations Command
Space Operations Command presents combat-ready space forces to U.S. Space Command and the joint force, turning satellites, sensors, and networks into operational effects.
WITHOUT ORBIT, MODERN WARFARE GOES BLIND.
Mission
From GPS to missile warning, protected communications, and access to orbit, each system underwrites modern American warfare.
A medium-Earth-orbit constellation that gives U.S. forces precision navigation, weapon guidance, encrypted military signals, and the timing layer behind global infrastructure.
History
From the start of the space age to the creation of Space Force, a command lineage built for the orbital domain.
Space Becomes a Strategic Domain
The launch of Sputnik makes orbit a national-security priority and starts the race to build military warning, communications, weather, and navigation systems in space.
Strategic space age begins
Air Force Space Command
Air Force Space Command is established to organize military space operations decades before the Space Force becomes an independent service.
Dedicated space command culture
GPS Reaches Full Operational Capability
GPS matures into a global utility and military advantage, transforming precision strike, timing, navigation, logistics, and civilian infrastructure.
PNT becomes foundational
United States Space Force Established
The Space Force is created on December 20, 2019, separating military space responsibilities into a new branch focused on orbital security.
First new U.S. service since 1947
Guardians Named
Space Force personnel become Guardians, marking a distinct service identity built around space operations, acquisition, intelligence, and cyber defense.
Guardian identityContested Space Era
The service accelerates resilient architectures, proliferated constellations, cyber defense, and operational integration as orbit becomes more congested and contested.
Resilience becomes doctrine
JOINT POWER BEGINS WITH THE SIGNAL ABOVE.
Space
From Colorado Springs to Vandenberg, Patrick, and Los Angeles, Space Force installations connect operations, launch, warning, and acquisition.
Peterson SFB
A central node for Space Force operations in Colorado Springs, connected to U.S. Space Command, NORAD, and the broader Front Range space enterprise.
Resilient
From modernized GPS to next-gen OPIR, protected communications, and proliferated constellations, the future is distributed, resilient, and rapidly refreshed.
Next-Generation GPS
Modernized GPS satellites improve accuracy, resilience, signal power, and anti-jam capability for both civilian users and military operations.
Always above
When a crisis erupts anywhere on Earth, decisive data often arrives first from above: warning, positioning, communications, and orbital custody.