MilitaryPolaris

Space Force at 5 Years: An Interview with Chief Master Sergeant John Bentivegna

Image: Space Force/Senior Master Sgt. Sara Keller

As the Space Force prepares to celebrate its fifth birthday this month—and its growth from a single Guardian to a uniformed force of nearly 10,000—Polaris chatted with Space Force Chief Master Sergeant John Bentivegna about how the service has changed in its half decade, and what’s next.

Standalone?: Especially with the new incoming administration, there’s been chatter about the potential of establishing the Space Force as its own department rather than being nestled within the Air Force. While Bentivegna said he hasn’t been involved in any discussions on the topic, he did offer some insight into how the Space Force thinks about its reliance on the Air Force for services such as base security, human resources, legal help, and public relations.

Bentivegna acknowledged it could be helpful to have Guardians specializing in space working on missions ranging from launch range weather forecasting to contracting. But he said there’s more to consider than just the mission.

“We had to look at, could we have enough of those Guardians in that specialty to develop them and have a career path for them,” he said, adding that when officials weighed this idea in the past they found that “It wasn’t enough. You’d have a dead-end career.”

Looking ahead: What will the service be doing in another five years, on its 10th birthday? Making sure spacefarers are safe the same way international navies protect the waterways for tourism and commercial traffic.

“We already have space tourism. This year, we had Polaris Dawn, the first privately funded spacewalk…We had the first non-state player land on the Moon,” Bentivegna said. “Five years from now, there will be more and more space tourism and space economy…The Space Force will be the service they look to to make sure they have safe and unfettered access to allow innovators to innovate, dreamers to dream, and explorers to explore.”

Telling the story: There’s less inspirational work to tackle first. The Space Force is still working to spread awareness of what it does to audiences both in and out of the military. Bentivegna said he’s still teaching service members in other branches just how much operations across the military rely on space, though he said there’s more recognition of the importance of the domain at senior levels.

In the broader public, however, there’s more work to do. “There are still occasions where I show my military ID card and people say, ‘Space Force? That’s real?’” he said. 

Related Stories
Military

We Have Some Space Questions About The Golden Dome

President Donald Trump’s executive order calling for a new, satellite-based missile defense architecture around the continental US has defense contractors salivating, but questions about the cost, capabilities, and requirement for such a system remain unanswered. Are we already doing it? The executive order calling for the “Iron Dome” (now Golden Dome) system expected the Pentagon […]

Military

The Space Force Outlines Its Guide to Space Warfare

Space is the ultimate high ground, and like a modern-day Sun Tzu, Space Force chief Gen. Chance Saltzman has issued his Art of Space War.

InternationalMilitaryPolaris

NATO Considers Reopening Space Policy Ahead of Schedule

“It’s not supposed to be even touched until 2027. Now they’re saying that’s probably too long. So let’s talk about—is now the time, based on what’s happening in the world,” Col. Jonathan Whitaker told Payload on the sidelines of Space Symposium. 

Military

Derek Tournear Will Return to the SDA’s Helm

Dust off that nameplate: Derek Tournear is taking his corner office back. The former leader of the Space Development Agency (SDA) will return to his old job on April 17, following three months of administrative leave.