Astronomy Prints 🌌: Saltzman: A guardian's job is warfighting

03/04/2025

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Space & defense brief 🛰️

SPACE FORCE CHIEF: EMBRACE THE WARFIGHTER MINDSET

The head of the U.S. Space Force is urging guardians to embrace their role as warfighters in space.

Speaking Monday at the Air & Space Forces Association's Warfare Conference in Aurora, Colorado, Gen. Chance Saltzman emphasized that the Space Force isn't just a support arm — it's a military branch tasked with securing America's dominance in orbit.

Saltzman's remarks follow a recent report questioning the Space Force for focusing more on defense than on offense, as well as broader directives from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to "revive the warrior ethos."

"We must think of space as a warfighting domain, rather than just a collection of support activities," Saltzman said, reinforcing a strategic shift from passive satellite protection to active space control.

"Space control is how the Space Force achieves space superiority," he said, insisting that contesting and dominating the domain is the primary goal. The ability to control space in a conflict ensures that the U.S. and its allies can operate freely while denying that same advantage to potential foes.

"Domain control is the special province of warfighters. It's what separates the Navy from the Merchant Marine and the Air Force from Southwest Airlines."
Space control, including both kinetic and non-kinetic capabilities to disrupt, degrade, and, if necessary, destroy adversary space systems, is a top priority, he said.
"Historically, we've avoided talking too much about space control," he admitted. "But why would you have a military space service if not to execute space control?"
To that end, Saltzman announced that the Space Force will soon publish new doctrine guiding its approach to space control.

Beyond doctrine, Saltzman made it clear that frontline units must take ownership of their readiness.

"At headquarters, we are not living the mission day to day," he said, calling on guardians in the field to innovate and adapt. While promising improved training systems, ranges, and simulators, he warned: "You cannot afford to wait on headquarters to deliver better answers. I need Guardians in the field to find a way."

PENTAGON GREENLIGHTS 'WHAT YOU DID LAST WEEK' EMAIL

Defense Department civilians are required to comply with the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) "What You Did Last Week" email directive, according to new guidance from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

In a memo last week, Hegseth underscored the "strong and important contributions of our civilian workforce" and directed personnel to submit to the Office of Management and Budget five bullet points detailing their accomplishments from the prior workweek. The move comes after an initial pause in implementation as Pentagon leadership reviewed the request.

"I am directing each member of the Department's civilian workforce to provide five bullets on what they accomplished in their specific jobs last week to their immediate supervisors," Hegseth wrote. The directive prohibits classified or sensitive information in the responses.

Federal civilians across DoD were set to receive the email yesterday, March 3, with a 48-hour deadline for submission. Employee responses may be subject to review by Pentagon leadership and could be accessible via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. According to the memo, failure to comply may result in disciplinary action.

AIR FORCE ANNOUNCES NEXT STEPS IN 'DEFERRED RESIGNATION PROGRAM'

The Department of the Air Force, which oversees the Air Force and the Space Force, has begun implementing the Deferred Resignation Program, also referred to internally as the "Fork in the Road" email.

The "Fork in the Road" sent to federal employees was an initiative spearheaded by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), mirroring a similar message Elon Musk sent to Twitter employees in 2022.

The offer proposes a "deferred resignation" option, where employees could resign and receive pay and benefits through September 30.
On Feb. 28, the Air Force began notifying employees regarding the status of their DRP applications, though officials have not disclosed how many personnel opted to resign under the program. Approved participants will receive paid administrative leave through Sept. 30, during which they are generally not expected to perform work duties or report in person.
Air Force officials say the voluntary program offers a structured off-ramp for employees leaving federal service while simultaneously supporting the Defense Department's goals of reshaping its civilian workforce.

AIR FORCE CONFIRMS FULL HIRING FREEZE

The Department of the Air Force also announced an immediate hiring freeze in response to Hegseth's directive aimed at aligning the civilian workforce with national defense priorities.

Per directives in the "Immediate Civilian Hiring Freeze for Alignment with National Defense Priorities" memo, all Air Force organizations — including headquarters, major commands, and field agencies — must halt hiring, cease onboarding new employees, and rescind all tentative and final job offers.

For the duration of the freeze, Air Force entities are prohibited from filling vacant civilian positions or creating new roles. While the Pentagon has not specified how long the freeze will remain in effect, defense officials say the move is part of a broader effort to reassess workforce requirements amid shifting national security priorities.

NOAA LAYOFFS SHAKE UP SPACE TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT

The Department of Commerce, particularly the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), experienced a wave of layoffs last week, with approximately 880 employees reportedly let go.

Among the hardest-hit offices was the Office of Space Commerce (OSC), which lost all of its senior personnel. The OSC plays a critical role in issuing licenses for commercial remote sensing satellites and is leading the development of a new civil space traffic coordination system.

The departures come at a precarious time for the implementation of Space Policy Directive-3 (SPD-3), which aims to transition space traffic management responsibilities from the Department of Defense to the Department of Commerce. A shortage of staff at OSC could hinder the rollout of the Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS), the system designed to carry out this transition.

In other news 🚀

A robotic lunar lander built by Texas-based Firefly successfully landed on the moon March 2. The lander, called Blue Ghost, launched to orbit on a SpaceX rocket in January.

Firefly is only the second private-sector company ever to achieve a soft lunar landing. The company is carrying out this mission as a contractor under NASA's CLPS and Artemis programs, which aim to use robotic landers to explore the moon before humans return.

The U.S. Air Force plans to start an environmental impact review for a novel military logistics project, proposing the construction of two landing pads on Johnston Island, a remote atoll in the Pacific Ocean.

The pads would support the reentry of vehicles under the Air Force's Rocket Cargo program, an initiative to harness commercial rockets and reentry capsules for cargo delivery. The review will evaluate the effects of building and operating the landing pads on Johnston Atoll, where up to 10 reentry vehicle landings would take place annually over four years.