“Neither Colorado, nor California, nor Alabama make any geographical sense. It’s pretty much Texas and Florida for useable coast for launches intended for space development. You can polar launch from Vandenburg, which is okay for observation satellites.”

Yeah, … So what?

US Space Command won’t be designing or launching rockets, … they are operators of satellites. If *any* bone was going to be thrown to Shelby, they were the more obvious pick. The Service HQ for USSF will be in the Pentagon.

If the assets must be moved to high enough orbits that speed-of-light latency becomes a problem, *then*some of the operators may be moved into Space to keep latency lower, but again, the position of their base on Earth won’t matter much at all. That will be a different base for drone operators, is all. The same will happen if some Guardians are assigned to spacecraft assembly facilities in HEO out into CisLunar Space to do whatever robots still cannot, yet. Their work would be closest to what the Navy Construction Battalions have been, CBs, …or Sea Bees, as popularly known. It still doesn’t require being near a launch site, or any manufacturing site, on Earth.

Gold pressed latinum or Star Fleet credits either one is cash.

They did try to make a utopian Federation but found out that without conflict things got pretty boring for people. Peace and unity do make a good TV show.

Plus people get board and eventually go out looking for new excitement and adventure. And they do find it, for good or bad.

Blair: I should have been more clear. I wasn’t referring to the original series, but all the series that followed.

Roddenberry might have been a Democrat, but he would find today’s Democratic Party quite abhorrent.

I have a different take. Please review the episode “And The Children Shall Lead”. There are other examples of a generally conservative message in the show.

At one point I decided to find out Gene Rodenberry’s politics, and the publically available information at the time pretty much came to “We don’t know”. No one could nail him down. Which to my mind, in Hollywood, means not entirely Liberal.

Blair: Star Trek was a lefty’s fantasy of the future (a benevolent authoritarian government that rules all and where no money or property exists). San Fran was thus the perfect choice for home, as it was then and remains the lefty’s modern concept of paradise.

Everyone else knows better. The military would be insane to want to go there.

From someone who is half Welch and German (landed in 1709 in time for the Revolution Number One) with a dollop of Cherrokee in the mix.

The U.S. Space Command is not the same as the U.S. Space Force.

The HQ of the U.S. Space Command is not the same as the HQ of the USSF.

The HQ of the USSF is in the Pentagon.

On another note, Doubting Thomas, whenever I see your screen name, for some reason it makes me think of where I first heard of Robert, and hence a perfect bumper sticker I thought of for this last election …

“Thomas from La Jolla for president.”

It doesn’t make any sense to do design work half a world away from manufacturing, or manufacturing half a world away from where you’re doing your launch operations.

On another note, Hope you are feeling much better Robert.