Astronaut Mark Kelly says Trump's order to create a Space Force 'is a dumb idea'
U.S. President Donald Trump told space industry notables that he was directing the Department of Defense to create a Space Force, a sixth branch of the military that sounds straight out of a sci-fi movie, Insider reported.
"We are going to have the Air Force, and we are going to have the Space Force — separate but equal," Trump said in an address at a meeting of the National Space Council on Monday. "It is going to be something. So important."
Trump has spoken publicly about creating a Space Force four times since becoming president.
But the retired NASA astronaut Mark Kelly — a former Navy pilot, combat veteran, four-time space-flyer, and the identical twin brother of the former astronaut Scott Kelly — doesn't support it, and some members of Congress are also voicing their distaste for the idea.
"This is a dumb idea. The Air Force does this already. That is their job," Mark Kelly tweeted on Monday with a link to a story on Military.com. "What's next, we move submarines to the 7th branch and call it the 'under-the-sea force?'"