By 
November 8th, 2025
Today, the U.S. Space Force does not have their guardians operating in the space domain for military missions.
That should change according to a new report by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies in Arlington, Virginia.
As humanity’s interests in space go further from the Earth, “astronaut guardians may be necessary to execute and secure missions that cannot be accomplished through remote operations,” explains the report, authored by Col Charles S. Galbreath, USSF (Ret.), a senior resident fellow for Space Studies at the Mitchell Institute’s Spacepower Advantage Center of Excellence (MI-SPACE).
Image credit: U.S. Space Force
“The adaptability and flexibility of human decision-making, as well as their ability to conduct a variety of mission operations, could present fundamental challenges to an adversary’s decision calculations,” Galbreath notes.
Risk calculus
There is, of course, another facet of humans in space.
That is the potential to raise the threshold of acceptability for hostile actions that may be lethal to humans.
“Harming an uncrewed satellite is one thing; harming a space station with military crew on it is a completely different risk calculus for an adversary to consider.”
An onboard camera captured the military’s X-37B uncrewed space plane and Earth during its OTV-7 flight, during which it also performed an aerobraking maneuver for the first time. Image credit: U.S. Space Force
To access the full report — A Broader Look at Dynamic Space Operations: Creating Multi-Dimensional Dilemmas for Adversaries – at:
https://www.mitchellaerospacepower.org/app/uploads/2025/11/DSO-FINAL.pdf
Posted in Space News
