U.S. Space Force

Operates GPS and buys national-security launches from SpaceX, ULA and Blue Origin.

Founded: 2019
Headquarters: The Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia
Machines in the atlas: 1

The Space Force was established on December 20, 2019, as a separate armed service organized under the Department of the Air Force, much as the Marine Corps sits within the Department of the Navy. It operates the GPS constellation, whose civilian service is free to all users worldwide, and runs the National Security Space Launch program, which certifies rockets and buys launches for military and intelligence satellites.

Its machines

GPS IIIOperates it

Stories that involve Space Force

How GPS turns atomic time into position, and who keeps it runningA receiver finds itself by timing signals from four satellites. The Space Force runs the system, finished GPS III in April 2026, and canceled the ground system that was meant to replace the old one.Story, about 12 minutes
Why the station, Landsat, GPS, GOES and Webb fly where they doHeight sets a satellite’s speed; tilt and shape set what it sees. Five neighborhoods, from the station about 400 km up to Webb 1.5 million km away, and the work each one makes possible.Story, about 11 minutes
Two new heavy rockets share one engine, and both were grounded in 2026Blue Origin’s BE-4 powers its own New Glenn and United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan. Both entered service in 2024–2025; by mid-2026 neither could fly, for different reasons.Story, about 6 minutes
How America’s launch sites work, from the Cape to StarbaseFor decades most American rockets have left from one stretch of Florida coast, chosen in the late 1940s. The assembly building, crawlers and pads NASA built there for Apollo still set the pattern for how the biggest rockets fly.Explainer, about 7 minutes

Sources

About Us U.S. Space Force
GPS GPS.gov (National Coordination Office for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing)
Space Force Awards Blue Origin Task Order to Launch National Reconnaissance Mission Space Systems Command, May 29, 2026
Space Access Space Systems Command