US Space Force 5 years later: What has it accomplished so far, and where does it go from here?

5年后的美国太空军队：迄今为止取得了哪些成就，下一步又将何去何从？

The U.S. Space Force celebrates its fifth anniversary today.

今天美国太空军队庆祝成立以来的五周年。

The service was formally established on Dec. 20, 2019, when President Donald Trump signed it into law with the National Defense Authorization Act, the bill that allocates U.S. military spending each year. Since then, the U.S. Space Force has grown to nearly 15,000 servicemembers and civilian personnel. In its fifth year, Space Force has overseen astronaut launches from its facility at Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and has even seen one of its own active Guardians, as Space Force members are known, launch into space.

该军种于2019年12月20日正式成立，当时唐纳德·特朗普总统将其与《国防授权法案》一通签署成为法律，该法案是掌控掌握美国军费的开支。从那时起，美国太空军队已经发展到近15,000名军人和文职人员。第五年时，太空部队在佛罗里达州卡纳维拉尔角太空部队站的基站中监督宇航员的发射，甚至看到了自己的一名现役拥护者（太空部队成员之一）也被被发射到太空。

From GPS navigation networks to weather forecasting, from broadband internet to early-warning missile detection systems, the U.S. (like many other nations) increasingly depends on space-based technologies for its way of life. Space Force's role in protecting and overseeing these technologies has evolved and grown over the last five years, and will likely continue to do so as it moves forward. But just what has Space Force accomplished in its first five years, and where will it go from here?

从GPS导航系统到天气预报，从宽带互联网到导弹预警探测系统，美国（和许多其他国家一样）的生活方式越来越依赖网络信息技术。太空部队在保护和监督这些技术方面的作用在过去五年中不断发展和壮大，并且将随着时代发展继续深入研究。但太空军在头五年取得了什么成就？它又将何去何从？

When Space Force was established in 2019, the existing U.S. Air Force Space Command was inactivated and all of its space units were assigned to Space Force. From there, Space Force had to develop training materials, create new units dedicated to new types of missions, and even select new uniforms.

2019年太空军成立时，现有的美国空军，太空司令部被停用，其所有太空部队加入太空军。在此基础上，太空军必须研究开发材料，创建专门执行新型任务的新部队，甚至选择新制服。

Related: What is the U.S. Space Force and what does it do?

联系：美国太空军队是什么，它的职能是什么？

To consolidate all of its missions under one command, the Space Force activated Space Operations Command at Peterson Air Force Base (now Peterson Space Force Base) in Colorado on Oct. 21, 2020.

为了将所有任务整合到一个司令部之下，太空军于2020年10月21日在科罗拉多州彼得森空军基地（现为彼得森太空军基地）启动了太空作战司令部。

Within two years, Space Force created Space Delta 1 at the base to serve as "America's epicenter of space power" and help support operations at dozens of locations worldwide, according to a Space Force statement.

根据太空军的一份声明，两年内，太空军在该基地创建了Space Delta 1，作为“美国太空力量的中心”，帮助并支持全球数十个地点的行动。

Deltas are units with specific missions or functions, ranging from operations, facility support, or training. Space Launch Delta 45 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, for example, oversees all space launch operations from the U.S. East Coast.

三角洲是具有特定任务或职能的单位，包括作战、设施支持或训练。卡纳维拉尔角太空部队站的太空发射Delta 45，又或者负责监督美国东海岸的所有太空发射行动。

With its basic organizational structure in place, Space Force, through the Air Force recruiting service, began the process of recruiting new Guardians in September 2020.

随着基本组织结构的到位，太空军队通过空军征兵服务于2020年9月开始招募新的拥护者。

By December of that year, the service saw the first seven Guardians to enlist directly into the Space Force from basic training. "You will lay the foundation of a service that is innovative and can go fast in order to stay ahead of a significant and growing threat, and you, if deterrence fails, will fight and win the battle for space superiority which is so vital to our nation," then-Chief of Space Operations Gen. John "Jay" Raymond said at the enlistment ceremony.

到当年12月，首批七名拥护者从基础训练中直接加入到太空军中。“你们将为一种创新的、高速发展的军种奠定基础，以便应对于日益增长的重大威胁，如果威慑失败，你们将为太空优势而战并赢得这场对我们国家至关重要的太空优势之战。”时任太空作战部长约翰·“杰伊”·雷蒙德将军在入伍仪式上说道。

In 2021, Space Force debuted its first official uniforms after getting its official flag and somewhat 'Star-Trek'-looking emblem.

2021年，太空军获得官方旗帜和像“星际迷航”的徽章后，首次推出了第一套官方制服。

By 2022, with its logistical and organizational structures in place, the service was already looking ahead to when it might be called upon to fight actual wars in space. Space Force began creating units dedicated to tracking threats in orbit or targeting adversarial nations' satellites.

到2022年，随着后勤和组织结构的到位，该军种已经对何时可能被要求在太空进行实际战争做准备。太空部队开始创建专门的跟踪轨道威胁或瞄准敌对国家卫星的部队。

Within just a few years, Space Force had its own large-scale training exercises and counterspace weaponry aimed solely at protecting American spacecraft or disrupting other nations' satellites in the event of a conflict.

短短几年内，太空军就形成了自己的大规模训练演习和拥有反太空武器，其目的是在发生冲突时保护美国航天器或破坏其他国家的卫星。

To highlight this new focus, the service unveiled a lean new mission statement in September 2023 consisting of just nine brief words: "Secure our Nation's interests in, from, and to space."

为了突出这一新重点，该军种于2023年9月发布了一份精简的新使命声明，内容仅包含十个简短的字：“确保国家一切太空利益。”

The first launch overseen by the U.S. Space Force took place in March 2020 when a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket launched an advanced communications satellite on behalf of the service. The satellite was designed to provide jam-proof high-speed communications between U.S. government leadership and deployed military forces.

美国太空军队2020年3月监督首次发射发生，当时联合发射联盟(ULA)的Atlas V火箭代表该服务发射了一颗先进通信卫星。该卫星旨在为美国政府领导层和部署的军队之间提供抗干扰的高速通信。

In 2024, Space Force notched a huge milestone when it oversaw its first-ever astronaut launch. On June 5, 2024, an Atlas V took off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station carrying NASA astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Suni Williams aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, headed for the International Space Station.

2024年，太空军监督首次宇航员发射，创下了一个巨大的里程碑。2024年6月5日，一架Atlas V载着美国宇航局宇航员巴里·“布奇”·威尔莫和苏尼·威廉姆斯乘坐波音公司的Starliner飞船从卡纳维拉尔角太空部队站起飞，前往国际空间站。

Three months later, Space Force took another huge step into the final frontier when it sent its first active Guardian, NASA astronaut and U.S. Space Force colonel Nick Hague, on the SpaceX Crew-9 mission to the ISS.

三个月后，太空部队向最后目的又迈出了一大步，派遣了第一位现役拥护者、NASA宇航员和美国太空部队上校尼克·黑格(Nick Hague)执行SpaceX Crew-9前往国际空间站的任务。

Hague's launch was notable not only because he was the first active Guardian, but because his launch took place from Space Force's own launch facility, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. For Hague, being chosen for the mission was an honor.

黑格的发射之所以引人注目，不仅因为他是第一位现役拥护者，还因为他的发射是在太空军自己的发射设施卡纳维拉尔角太空军站进行的。对黑格来说，被选中执行这项任务是一种荣誉。

"It's an honor for me to be able to represent all those Guardians that are around the globe that do all those things behind the scenes that make human spaceflight possible, whether that's launching us into space or it's protecting us while we're out there, by watching the skies and making sure things don't run into us," Hague told Space.com prior to launch.

“我很荣幸能够代表全球那些在幕后做事的拥护者，他们使人类航天成为可能，无论是将我们发射到太空，还是在我们在太空时保护我们“，黑格在发射前告诉空间站网络。

From a piece of legislation to launching its own personnel from its own launch site, Space Force set a brisk pace in its first five years.

从一项立法到有自己的发射场和自己的人员，太空军在头五年里迈出了轻快的步伐。

The service's current Chief of Space Operations, Gen. Chance Saltzman, highlighted the rapid growth of Space Force in remarks given at the Center for Strategic and International Studies' (CSIS) "Celebrating the U.S. Space Force and Charting Its Future" event in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 17.

该军队内现任太空作战部长钱斯·萨尔茨曼(Chance Saltzman)将军在战略与国际研究中心(CSIS)于12月17日在华盛顿特区举行的“庆祝美国太空军队成立并规划其未来”活动上发表讲话，强调了太空部队的快速增长。

"On average, we have tripled in size every year for the last five years in personnel, an astounding growth rate for any government organization," Saltzman said. "We have reimagined operations, redefined policies [and] reworked processes from the ground up to forge a service purpose-built for great power competition.

萨尔茨曼说：“在过去五年中，我们每年的人员规模翻倍增加，这对于任何政府组织来说都是惊人的增长率。”“我们重构了运营，重定了政策，并从头开始制定了新的流程，以打造为大国竞争专属的服务。

"All of this in just five years."

“这一切仅发生在短短五年中。”

With five historic years under its belt, Space Force now looks forward to notching more milestones in the future. As always, with the U.S. military, many of the service's future plans are dictated by its budget. "Resources are going to dictate how far we can get over how much we can get accomplished in the next 12 months," Saltzman said at the CSIS event.

经过历史性的五年，太空军期待能在未来取得更多里程碑。多年以来，对于美国军队来说，该军种的许多未来计划都取决于其预算。萨尔茨曼在CSIS活动上表示：“我们在未来12个月内能取得多大的成就取决于资源如何”

However, Saltzman outlined several high priorities for Space Force, including increasing its ability to support rapid launch timelines, developing and deploying new counterspace weapons, and creating Space Futures Command, a new field command that will "ensure competitiveness over time" through forecasting emerging technological developments and planning ways to leverage those for new capabilities and missions.

然而，萨尔茨曼概述了太空军的几个高度优先事项，包括提高快速发射时间表的能力，开发和部署新的反太空武器，以及创建未来的太空司令部。新的野战司令部，将通过预测新兴技术发展来“确保随着时间的推移的竞争力”并规划将这些技术用于新能力和任务的方法。

But above all, Saltzman stressed that the service has already accomplished a great deal and that Space Force has already proven itself capable of defending the United States' assets in space.

其中，萨尔茨曼强调的是，太空部队已经取得了巨大成就，并证明自己有能力保卫美国在太空的资产。

"Today, against all odds, I’m proud to say without question that Guardians are the preeminent space warfighters, armed and ready to protect and defend the future of our nation," Saltzman said.

萨尔茨曼说：“今天，尽管困难重重，我毫无疑问地说，拥护者们都是杰出的太空战士，他们全副武装，随时准备保护和捍卫我们国家的未来。”