Organizing for Space: Creating a Trinitarian American Space Program - A Historical Primer
Abstract
Accordingly, this essay will attempt to answer two questions while probably raising many more. Why does the US continue to operate a trifurcated space program? And, what are the historical antecedents for this division of labor which has now persisted for almost half a century? This paper will attempt to address these issues with the hope of achieving a second order effect, namely, to arm the Air Force's policy makers with a historical case study of the government splitting its effort in what was (in the late 1950s and early 1960s when these decisions were made) a challenging new domain of Air Force operations: space. In turn, today's decision makers may then be able to draw applicable lessons (or at least a sense of historical humility) when confronting one of the Air Force's most vexing contemporary organizational challenges - whether or not to create an Air Force Cyber Command as the service's tenth and newest major command (which would have been the first new MAJCOM since AFSOC's creation in 1990 and AFRC's in 1997). As was the case at the dawn of the space age, this new AFCYBER MAJCOM would have arisen out of the need to master the complexities of the military's requirement to operate in a new domain - the electronic or informational arena referred to as "cyberspace." However, given the AF's recent decision to pull back from creating a MAJCOM for cyberspace operations and endorse only a new numbered air force (NAF), perhaps only one conclusion can be declared indisputable: today's organizational challenges associated with structuring cyberspace operations will almost certainly be as vexing as those associated with creating an American space program fifty years ago.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 17, 2008
- Accession Number
- ADA540377
Entities
People
- Mark A. Erickson
Organizations
- Air War College