Can the Space Force repair its image and be taken seriously?

The Space Force is here to stay. President Biden is “not revisiting” the decision to establish America’s newest military branch, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Wednesday. The question of its existence has been settled, but the Space Force still faces major questions about its future now that Donald Trump — who aggressively lobbied Congress to create the new service — is no longer in office.

Some people might consider the Space Force to be a product of Trump’s imagination, but the concept of consolidating the U.S. military’s various space-related activities into a single, independent branch has been around for decades. Though its name conjures images of space troopers engaged in zero-gravity warfare, the Space Force’s mission is largely made up of less glamorous Earth-bound operations like defending America’s satellites from sabotage.