07/21/2026

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Schiess poised to inherit a bigger, more combat-focused Space Force

Lt. Gen. Douglas Schiess’ Senate confirmation hearing July 16 lasted less than an hour, drew only a handful of senators and produced no indication that his nomination to become the service’s third chief faces serious resistance.

Sen. Angus King, the Maine independent, told Schiess that the sparse attendance should be taken as a compliment — and a sign that there was little controversy surrounding his nomination.

Schiess, if confirmed, would take over at a consequential moment for the six-year-old service.

The Space Force is preparing for a steep budget increase driven by missile defense, new satellite networks and classified programs. It is seeking 2,800 more uniformed Guardians and 2,000 additional civilians. Its acquisition organization is being rebuilt around nine powerful Portfolio Acquisition Executives. And Golden Dome, President Donald Trump’s proposed homeland missile-defense system, could make the service responsible for some of the Pentagon’s largest and most technically demanding programs.

Schiess’ background

He is a career missile and space officer who has spent much of the past decade moving between operational commands and the Pentagon. Schiess began his career in intercontinental ballistic missile operations before moving into military launch, GPS and satellite communications. His commands have included the 4th Space Operations Squadron, the missile-warning-focused 21st Space Wing and the 45th Space Wing, which oversaw launches from Cape Canaveral.

Before moving to the Pentagon in November 2025 as deputy chief of space operations for operations, Schiess commanded U.S. Space Forces–Space, the organization responsible for supplying operational forces to U.S. Space Command.

The chief of space operations organizes, trains and equips the service, while U.S. Space Command determines how those forces are employed.

Schiess said he wants force design, acquisition and training decisions tied more directly to combatant command requirements. And he says success should be measured by whether guardians and space systems are incorporated into joint plans, exercises and operations — not simply by how many satellites the service launches.

The money question

Schiess offered an unqualified defense of the administration’s $71.1 billion Space Force request, calling it “exactly what we need.” Most of the increase, he said, would fund weapon systems, facilities and training rather than personnel.

The request’s path through Congress remains uncertain. House leaders have signaled that they may resist the administration’s plan to finance much of the increase through another reconciliation package, raising the possibility that Schiess could inherit a service built around spending assumptions lawmakers do not fully support.

As chief, Schiess would not control space acquisition directly. But he would validate military requirements and help shape the budget decisions that determine which programs advance and which do not.

He strongly endorsed the Pentagon’s shift from managing individual programs to broader portfolios, under which acquisition executives can move resources and adjust requirements across an entire mission area. Schiess said the principal obstacle would be cultural rather than organizational. The service must find leaders willing to accept calculated risks and make trade-offs without recreating the same layers of oversight inside the new structure.

Workforce under strain

In addition, Schiess would lead a service attempting to expand after significant civilian workforce reductions.

He told senators that Space Systems Command is trying to hire 100 civilians a month after cuts reduced the Space Force’s civilian workforce by roughly 14 percent to 15 percent.

Against that backdrop, Schiess told senators that competing with China will require ensuring the Space Force can recruit, train and retain enough qualified military and civilian personnel to carry out its expanding mission.

He described Beijing’s counterspace development as “breathtakingly fast” and said China is narrowing the U.S. lead and fielding new capabilities daily. “I think about China every day,” he told the committee.

The threat debate has moved on

One of the most revealing moments in Schiess’s confirmation process may have been what he did not have to explain.

Speaking Friday with the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, Lt. Gen. Gregory Gagnon said senators questioning Schiess at his confirmation hearing already understood the military threat posed by China in space.

“He didn't have to explain the threat to the senators,” said Gagnon, commander of Space Force Combat Forces Command at Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado. “The senators were telling him about the threat.”

The observation captures how far the political debate over military space has shifted since the Space Force was established in 2019.

During Schiess' confirmation hearing, members of the Senate Armed Services Committee mentioned Beijing’s space-based targeting networks, counter-space weapons and ability to track U.S. forces across the Pacific. They then pressed him on how quickly the Space Force could respond, what systems it needed and how much the effort would cost.

SASC Chairman Sen. Roger Wicker framed the service’s central challenge as keeping pace with competitors that are expanding their forces and deploying new systems faster than the United States can respond through incremental growth.

SASC Ranking Member Sen. Jack Reed went further, describing China’s space-based intelligence architecture as a kill chain capable of tracking U.S. carrier groups after they leave port and passing targeting data to missile systems in near real time. Reed identified tactical surveillance, offensive and defensive space control and electronic warfare as capabilities that could determine whether U.S. forces can operate in a future conflict.

Sen. Deb Fischer questioned Schiess about the risks of delaying space-based moving-target surveillance, which the Pentagon sees as a way to track aircraft, ships and ground forces over large distances.

Sen. Angus King, the Maine independent who acknowledged that he had initially been skeptical of creating the Space Force, called the service an essential component of U.S. deterrence. His questions focused not on whether the mission was necessary, but on whether Schiess could justify the administration’s proposed $71.1 billion budget.

After the Space Force was created, its leaders routinely had to explain why a separate military branch was necessary and why satellites built to provide communications, missile warning and navigation also needed protection from attack.

Gagnon said even the argument for designing satellite constellations to survive losses remained an “uphill” case about four years ago. Pentagon budget officials now treat resilience as a baseline requirement, he said, asking whether proposed architectures can continue operating after satellites are disrupted or destroyed.

The political consensus strengthens the Space Force’s argument for a larger budget and workforce. Although it does not eliminate scrutiny over individual programs, costs or acquisition choices.

The debate is no longer primarily about whether the United States faces a military contest in space. It is about whether the Space Force can build the people, weapons and operating structure needed to compete in it.

Pentagon expands launch plans as rocket bottlenecks persist

The Space Force is preparing for a sharp increase in national security launches even though the number of rockets available to carry those missions remains limited. Two recent changes to the Pentagon’s main launch-buying program show how much the forecast for demand has grown.

The service this month raised the ceiling of its National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 1 contract to $17 billion from $5.6 billion. In April, it disclosed 25 additional missions for Phase 3 Lane 2, on top of the 54 launches originally planned over five years.

The $17 billion Lane 1 figure is a contract ceiling, not committed spending. But the $11.4 billion increase, combined with a nearly 50 percent expansion of the Lane 2 manifest, points to a much larger military launch pipeline than the Pentagon anticipated when it structured Phase 3.

The Space Force has created a broad pool of potential suppliers, but only a small number have rockets ready to fly national security missions.

Lane 1, the commercial-style portion of Phase 3, now includes SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, Stoke Space, Impulse Space and Relativity Space. Admission to the shared contract makes a company eligible to compete for future task orders but doesn’t guarantee work. Providers generally must first complete a successful orbital flight and satisfy other readiness requirements. Several companies in the pool are still developing their vehicles.

The supply picture is tighter in Lane 2, which covers expensive satellites bound for demanding orbits and requires the full NSSL certification process. SpaceX and ULA are the only companies with certified rockets. Blue Origin holds a Lane 2 contract but must complete certification of New Glenn before it can compete for missions.

For now, SpaceX is carrying much of the load. The Space Force has moved time-sensitive missions from ULA to SpaceX, which has won most of the Phase 3 task orders awarded so far.

ULA was expected to provide much of the second source of capacity. Its Vulcan rocket was certified for national security missions in 2025 after years of delays. Vulcan has since encountered another setback. An anomaly involving one of its solid-rocket boosters during a Space Force mission in February prompted an investigation and a pause in additional national-security flights.

ULA is carrying a substantial backlog from the previous NSSL Phase 2 contract, along with new Phase 3 assignments and commercial launches for Amazon’s satellite broadband network.

Blue Origin is working toward becoming the Space Force’s third certified Lane 2 provider.

New Glenn completed two successful orbital flights before a May 28 explosion during an integrated hot-fire test damaged equipment at the company’s Cape Canaveral launch complex.

The company has begun rebuilding the site and says it plans to return New Glenn to flight this year using a revised system for moving and erecting the rocket at the pad.

Behind Blue Origin is a group of newer providers that could add capacity to Lane 1 — once their rockets are flying.

Rocket Lab is developing Neutron, a reusable medium-lift rocket, and has been testing its Archimedes engines ahead of a potential first flight later in 2026. A successful debut would allow the company compete for Lane 1 launch task orders of smaller satellites and constellations to low Earth orbit.

Relativity Space is developing Terran R, a medium reusable rocket designed to carry more than 20 metric tons to low Earth orbit while recovering its first stage. The company plans to launch from Cape Canaveral, but Terran R has yet to fly.

Stoke Space is working on Nova, a fully reusable medium-lift vehicle. The company has raised substantial private capital, secured a launch site at Cape Canaveral and advanced major hardware through testing, but it also remains in development.

Impulse Space offers a different model. The company doesn’t build a booster. Its Helios transfer vehicle is designed to launch aboard another company’s rocket and then carry a payload from low Earth orbit to geostationary orbit or another high-energy destination.

But those options remain prospective. The near-term NSSL market still depends heavily on SpaceX, ULA’s return to regular Vulcan flights and Blue Origin’s ability to recover from its ground-test mishap and complete New Glenn certification.

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