The Space Force must build the capability to put troops in orbital space in order to counter China’s space ambitions. This is reportedly the argument put forward in a paper published by the Air and Space Force Association’s internal think tank, the Mitchell Institute. The report, authored by retired Col. Kyle Pumroy, outlines the alleged threats that China’s manned spaceflight program poses and steps the Space Force, NASA, and industry can take to counter future space conflict scenarios, reported Air and Space Force magazine. Pumroy, a senior resident fellow at Mitchell, said in a May 21 press roundtable that without a serious commitment to at least starting the process of putting “Guardians” (as members of the Space Force are known) in space, the U.S. risks falling behind in what many are now calling the new space race.
“We’ve seen year in and year out that here terrestrially China has violated existing norms, and so even if we establish them, would they adhere to them?” said retired Col. Charles Galbreath, director of Mitchell’s Spacepower Center of Excellence. As evidence of this allegedly growing threat, the paper notes that China has achieved nearly all of its spaceflight goals between 1992 and 2022 and has had a continuous presence of Taikonauts, the Chinese term for astronauts, aboard the Tiangong space station since June 2022.
