was launched on the first U.S. orbital flight,
Mercury-Atlas 6, by an Air Force Ballistic Missile Division Atlas rocket on 20 February 1962. Following the launch of
Sputnik 1 by the Soviet Union in October 1957, the
Eisenhower administration attempted to centralize all military and civil space programs in the
Advanced Research Projects Agency. Responsibility for those programs was returned to the individual services in September 1959. The
U.S. Army was designated lead service for
communication satellites, the
U.S. Navy for
navigation satellites, and the
U.S. Air Force for
reconnaissance and surveillance satellites and
space launch vehicles. This split arrangement lasted until March 1961, when Secretary of Defense
Robert McNamara assigned the Air Force a near‑monopoly on military space development, with the exception of reconnaissance programs, which were passed to the
National Reconnaissance Office in 1961.
Space and missile development 1961-1990 . On 1 April 1961, Air Research and Development Command was reorganized as
Air Force Systems Command. Space and missile programs had grown to the point where the
Air Force Ballistic Missile Division was split on 1 April 1961, with space systems under the Space Systems Division and missile programs under the Ballistic Systems Division. Although almost all
crewed spacecraft programs went to NASA after its creation in 1958, the Air Force retained the
Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar program under the
Wright Air Development Center, with the Titan IIIC initially intended as its booster. The program, however, was canceled in 1963 when it was determined that the
Blue Gemini program would better satisfy its objectives. However, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara announced the
Manned Orbiting Laboratory program, which was assigned to the Space Systems Division by General Bernard Schriever.
Douglas Aircraft Company was responsible for the spacecraft, and the Space Systems Division was developing the
Titan IIIM booster. However, the program only had a single test flight,
OPS 0855, before being canceled in 1969. In 2016,
SpaceX was awarded its first military launch under the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program, using its
Falcon 9 and
Falcon Heavy boosters. In 2019, in part due to SpaceX's success with reusable rockets, the program's name was changed to
National Security Space Launch. In 1994, the Space and Missile Systems Center had started the
Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) program to replace the
Defense Support Program. SBIRS was built upon technology tested for the
Strategic Defense Initiative, launching its first satellite in 2011. Since the 1970s, proposals were made to merge the military and
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) weather satellites. In 1994, President Clinton directed that the programs eventually be merged. In 1995, the Air Force, NASA, and NOAA started the
National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System which was intended to replace the Defense Metrological Support Program and be operated by NOAA, but the program collapsed due to cost overruns in 2010 and a full merging of the programs has not occurred. A second Defense Department-only effort, the
Defense Weather Satellite System, was canceled by Congress in 2012. The
Global Positioning System constellation became fully completed in 1994 and achieved initial operational capability in 1995.
Milstar had its first launch in 1995 and the Space and Missile Systems Center started development on the
Wideband Global SATCOM system to replace the
Defense Satellite Communications System and the
Advanced Extremely High Frequency to replace Milstar. The
Brilliant Pebbles space-based anti-missile interceptor was transferred to the Space and Missile Systems Center in 1993 from the
Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, but was terminated in 1994. On 31 March 2008, the Missile Defense Systems Group was activated. This resulted in the 61st Air Base Wing being inactivated and replaced with the 61st Air Base Group, the GPS Wing becoming the
Global Positioning Systems Directorate, the Launch and Range Systems Wing becoming the
Launch Enterprise Directorate, the MILSATCOM Wing becoming the
Military Satellite Communications Directorate, the Space Superiority Systems Wing becoming the
Space Superiority Systems Directorate, the SIBRS Wing becoming the
Infrared Space Systems Directorate, the Space Development and Test Wing becoming the Space Development and Test Directorate, the Space Logistics Group becoming the Space Logistics Directorate, the DMSP Group becoming the Defense Weather Systems Directorate, the Missile Defense Systems Group becoming the Missile Defense Systems Division, and the Satellite Control and Network Systems Group becoming the Satellite Control and Network Systems Division In 2014, the Space and Missile Systems Center combined its Developmental Planning Directorate and the Space Development and Test Directorate to form the Advanced Systems and Development Directorate. The Range and Network Systems Division was eventually stood up to replace the functions of the Satellite Control and Network Systems Division and in 2015 the Defense Weather Systems Directorate and Infrared Space Systems Directorate were combined into the
Remote Sensing Systems Directorate. In 2019, these directorates were all replaced as part of the SMC 2.0 reorganization, which instead established the Development Corps, which was responsible for innovation and prototyping, a Production Corps, an Enterprise Corps, which conducted support for products and launch, and an Atlas Corps which provided personnel management.
Redesignation as Space Systems Command and transfer to the Space Force When the United States Space Force was established as an independent service on 20 December 2019, Air Force Space Command was redesignated as United States Space Force, but functionally remained a major command within the Air Force. The Space and Missile Systems Center remained a part of United States Space Force as it was redesignated as
Space Operations Command, until it was reassigned to Headquarters Space Force on 22 April 2021 and officially transferred from the U.S. Air Force center to a U.S. Space Force field command, although it continued to use the Space and Missile Systems Center name. On 13 August 2021, the Space and Missile Systems Center was redesignated as Space Systems Command on 13 August 2021. The commander is a Space Force lieutenant general, while the deputy command is a Space Force major general and is also responsible for space launch. In addition to Space and Missile Systems Center units realigning, the 61st Air Base Group was redesignated the
Los Angeles Garrison. Space Systems Command also gained
Space Launch Delta 30 and
Space Launch Delta 45, which they had given up to Air Force Space Command in 1990. The commander of Space Launch Delta 45, a brigadier general, is the Space Systems Command operations director and range acquisitions lead.
Air Force Research Laboratory space units, such as the Space Vehicles Directorate, Space Electro-Optical Division, Rocket Propulsion Division, and Space Systems Technology Division, administratively report to Space Systems Command, while remaining under the aligned under Air Force Research Labs. The
Air Force Life Cycle Management Center's Strategic Warning and Surveillance Systems Division, responsible for ground-based radars, missile warning, space domain awareness, missile defense systems, and shared early warning capabilities, transferred to Space Systems Command. SYDs will consolidate program offices in SSC that design, develop, and deliver mission systems under a mission-focused command structure for acquisitions. IMDs will consolidate all aspects of mission-area readiness into a single organization, combining units in Space Operations Command (SpOC) that perform mission generation, intelligence support, and cyber defense with program offices at SSC that handle sustainment. Pairing IMDs in SpOC with complementary SYDs in SSC will streamline unity of effort for capability development. ==Symbolism==