Former Astronaut Mark Kelly Thinks Trump's Space Force is a Dumb Idea

Former Astronaut Mark Kelly thinks Trump’s “Space Force” is a joke.

“When President Trump announced his plans for a Space Force in June, I initially thought he was making a joke,” he explained. “Turns out he did just that, months earlier at a campaign-like event.”

The “joke” of a policy will cost billions of dollars and Kelly says it will not strengthen the capability of the United States Department of Defense.

“As an officer in the United States Navy, and as a pilot and commander of the Space Shuttle, I learned the value of air superiority. Space is the ultimate high ground, and we need a strong military presence in pace to counter threats to our national security.” he stated. “And that is why the Air Force Space Command is tasked with protecting our capabilities and projecting military power into space.”

Kelly says we all want to be led by visionaries, but the visionary should first understand the field he’s trying to enhance. He believes that Trump is envisioning having troops stationed in orbit, which is “just not how this works.”

“I’ve been to space four times, but this mission is done on the ground by the U.S. Air Force. It takes 20,000 active duty service members to do this, a small fraction of even the smallest branch of the military, the United States Marine Corps,” he explained. “So we’re looking at billions of taxpayer dollars of redundant spending to satisfy an ego, and it won’t accomplish anything.”