The United States Space Force was founded on December 20, 2019, when it was formally established as a new branch of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Key founding facts

  • The Space Force was created when the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 was signed into law on December 20, 2019.
  • This made it the first new U.S. military branch since the Air Force was established in 1947.

Why that date matters

  • December 20, 2019 marks the moment space operations were pulled out as a distinct, independent service focused on space as a warfighting domain.
  • Existing Air Force space units were reorganized under the new Space Force structure rather than built entirely from scratch.

Quick timeline snapshot

  • Pre-2019: Space missions lived mainly under Air Force Space Command and other service components.
  • December 20, 2019: U.S. Space Force officially established as the sixth branch of the U.S. military.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.