In Brief

Trump's Space Force Starts the Important Work: Picking Logos

Space Force Logos
The Trump Make America Great Again Committee is asking its supporters to vote on a logo for the Space Force. (Image credit: Trump Make America Great Again Committee)

If the United States creates a Space Force, what should its logo look like?

Shortly after Vice President Mike Pence revealed detailed plans for the creation of a sixth branch of the U.S. military on Thursday (Aug. 9), a political action committee (PAC) called "Trump Make America Great Again Committee" — which is part of Donald Trump's 2020 presidential campaign — sent out a mass email asking its supporters to vote on a new logo.

The PAC email features six logos made to look like mission patches, one of which is almost identical to NASA's official logo. Rockets and other spaceships adorn the other five logos. One logo seems to imply that the Space Force is going to Mars, with the phrase "Mars awaits."

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During his speech at the Pentagon on Thursday, Pence said the Trump administration is hoping to instate a Space Force by 2020. Whether the United States is really "going to have the Space Force" has yet to be determined, because only Congress has the authority to establish a new branch of the military. But that hasn't stopped Trump's campaign from attempting to monetize the idea.

"As a way to celebrate President Trump's huge announcement, our campaign will be selling a new line of gear," the PAC wrote in the email to its supporters. "But first we have to make a final decision on the design we will use to commemorate President Trump's new Space Force — and he wants YOU to have a say."

Only Trump's campaign donors can officially vote for a logo via the email sent directly from the Trump Make America Great Again Committee. 

Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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Hanneke Weitering
Contributing expert

Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos.