"Although the United States won the race to the moon, the Soviets were far more active in space than Americans during the decade that followed. By the 1980s, some space experts feared the United States was in danger of being surpassed in space, including dual-use systems that might be employed offensively in a military confrontation. A few experts, looking ahead, recommended a space force within roughly two decades. Standing up Space Force is organized chronologically by presidential administration, beginning in the middle of the Clinton years and progressing through the Trump administration. During the Clinton and George W. Bush years, the move to national security space was incremental. The Obama presidency witnessed the rise of New Space entrepreneurs whose impressive space activities facilitated their initial partnering with U.S. government National Security Space (NSS) missions helping the United States keep pace with China and Russia. During the Trump administration, all necessary elements finally came together - most significantly, presidential-congressional leadership and bipartisan support - to eventually produce the fiscal 2020 national defense authorization act (NDAA). Because the NDAA authorized and provided for the Space Force, when the President signed the defense bill on 20 December 2019, at the same moment he officially established the nation's sixth armed service"-- "This book is intended to answer the question, "How did we get the Space Force?" The Air Staff assigned the book with that purpose statement given to the author. Rather than a technically-focused work emphasizing satellites, spacecraft, and strategies for the new domain, the resulting work is narrative in nature, following the legislative-administrative history as it pertained to space during the last quarter century leading to the creation of the U.S. Space Force"-- Provided by publisher. Provided by publisher.

Survey of U.S. National Security Space, 1996-2000 -- U.S. National Security Space : the Bush years, 2001-2008 -- U.S. National Security Space : the Obama years, 2009-2016 -- Mixed momentum for a space service, 2017-2018 -- Standing up, 2019-2020 -- Epilogue. Service fundamentals.