With Space Force, the U.S. Military expects future wars won’t always be on Earth

The U.S. military’s Space Force appears like it’s not going anywhere, having outlasted the Netflix show of the same name.

Yet the country’s youngest service branch at two years old is still on the receiving end of jokes and bigger questions about what it does and why it exists.

“Most people don’t have the information they need,” said Master Sergeant Phillip Shane. “When someone asks, I try to educate them the best I can. It’s just the information is not out there.”

As the superintendent of the cadet space operations squadron at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Shane oversees about 125 cadets as they learn how to handle objects in outer space. He said the squadron manages two satellites that pass over the Academy a few times every day.

The work may sound exotic, involving rocket ships and zero gravity, but in reality it looks a lot like an office job in front of a few computer screens.

A handful of cadets and Shane pack into a room no larger than a small office as the satellites near. As the first one comes into range, a team of three cadets hustles to download experimental data from it and log any problems that arose since the last time the satellite passed overhead.