The Air Force Reserve Command plans to translate its traditional associate unit role—supplying airmen to fly and maintain active-duty aircraft—to the Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg AFB, Calif. The reserve manpower that will share in operating and maintaining equipment at the space ops center will come from the 939th Air Refueling Wing, which must give up its KC-135 tankers and close up shop in Portland, Ore.
Satellite manufacturer Apex announced it would launch a space-based interceptor demonstration next summer—the latest company to unveil plans to prototype technology that could contribute to the Pentagon’s Golden Dome missile defense project.
