On Saturday, May 30th, 2020 a historic event for the space community and the world took place: for the first time ever, astronauts were sent to the International Space Station through the collaborative efforts of NASA and a commercial operator, SpaceX. This successful mission (known as Demo-2 Mission) was also the first time since the cancellation of the U.S. shuttle program in 2011 that astronauts have been launched from U.S. soil in a U.S. space vehicle.

While all eyes were on Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, many things were happening behind the scenes that few were aware of. Luckily, the mission was a complete success from launch on Saturday to docking with the ISS on Sunday. However, had things gone awry, the 45th Operations Group’s Detachment 3 was ready to carry out all necessary rescue operations. This was precisely what Maj. Gen. John Shaw, Brig. Gen. Doug Schiess and Lt. Col. Michael Thompson discussed during the webinar hosted by SpaceNews Staff Writer Sandra Erwin and Editor-in-Chief Brian Berger.

Astronaut rescue operations are nothing new, and have been around since the dawn of human spaceflight. In fact, the 45th Operations Group’s Detachment 3 has been performing this role ever since the Apollo era, and as both Shaw and Thompson explained, continued to do so during the Soyuz launches, after the cancellation of the U.S. shuttle programme. And while astronaut-rescuing is nothing new, the technology to assist in these missions has evolved considerably: more operational satcoms, as well as the birth and development of GPS have proved to be a significant help. This does not mean, however, that astronaut rescuing is an easy task for the military. Currently, military personnel are trained to carry out rescue missions tailored to the specificities of the different capsules that exist nowadays and that will be operated in the future. These include SpaceX’s Dragon, Boeing’s Starliner, and NASA’s Orion. The Detachment 3 team has been preparing for these missions for the past 5 years.

Shaw, Schiess and Thompson also talked about the general role of the Space Force, a new branch of the U.S. military created in December 2019. It is yet unclear what the exact role of the Space Force will be as the eighth branch of the U.S. military, and its own unique culture as an independent division is still in the midst of being developed. Nonetheless, Shaw analogized that in the metaphorical periodic table of the different domains of military operations, space must be carbon; an element that is not set apart from the rest, but instead is in the middle of every decision-making process. Considering humankind’s dependence on outer space and its technology, particularly for the purposes of defense and the protection of States’ national security, outer space has become the ultimate high ground, and the Space Force will be expected to play its part in defending its military interests in this domain.

The one-hour webinar can be watched here.

Summary by Almudena Azcárate Ortega