President Donald Trump announced Monday that he is directing the Pentagon to establish a “Space Force” as the sixth branch of the armed forces — but the move is not as simple as his announcement suggested, and it's far from done yet.
The big picture: It wasn’t clear on the day of the announcement that Trump had signed a directive for the Pentagon to actually create the force — and the Pentagon is treating Trump's announcement as "guidance." Any creation of the force would also require congressional approval, and it's unclear at this time if the support is there to split a fully-fledged "Space Force" off from the U.S. Air Force (USAF), where military space operations are currently housed.
