ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

When NASA astronaut Lt. Col. Frank Rubio returns to Earth Sept. 27, he will have completed a record-breaking mission.

By the end of his mission, Rubio will have spent 371 days in low-Earth orbit, the longest single spaceflight by an American. Rubio’s time in orbit surpasses the previous record by 16 days, according to a NASA news release. He launched Sept. 21, 2022, for his first trip to space.

Technological advances need to accelerate at the same pace as evolving doctrine if the U.S. hopes to stay ahead of global warfighting competitors, Lt. Gen. L. Neil Thurgood said May 19. 

The Association of the U.S. Army’s Greater Los Angeles chapter will host a symposium in June on the Army’s continuing efforts in the space domain.

Scheduled for June 2–3 in Long Beach, California, the event is titled “Space: Enabling Multi-Domain Operations Symposium.” It will feature keynote addresses from Gen. James Dickinson, commander of the U.S. Space Command, and Lt. Gen. Dan Karbler, commander of the Army Space and Missile Defense Command.

As the military’s largest user of space, the Army must be able to fight and win not only on the terrestrial sphere but in the space domain as well, the commanding general of Army Space and Missile Defense Command said.

This need is made more urgent by the rapid advancement of technological capabilities at home and abroad, and “increasingly in the laboratories and field tests of our competitors,” Lt. Gen. Daniel Karbler said.

Army space leaders are trying to educate soldiers about how the force heavily relies on space-enabled capabilities.

Non-space soldiers may not realize how much of their equipment relies on space-enabled capabilities and how those capabilities enhance Army combat operations, said Robert Marquez, space training division chief for the Army Space and Missile Defense Command. Soldiers not in space jobs also may not realize how adversaries are already trying to take advance of space.

The Army’s Space and Missile Defense School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, established in 2010 to train and educate forces and develop doctrine to support combatant commands, has evolved.

There was once just a single course for Functional Area 40, a career field for space operations officers. Today, the school has 22 different courses and provides support to combat training centers and a variety of exercises.