Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
But the majority (about 70%, I believe) of commercial satellite launches are carried out by the European Space Agency. They have that market pretty much sewn up at present, although commercial launch companies will, I'm sure, change that over that next few years.
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I do not know enough about the structure of the European organizations to comment specifically, but I can suggest, with good reason, that the European Air Forces probably have their own space program also, think ICBM/Military satellites.
But also remember, that the Air Force does not fight on the ground, we bring the Army and Marines where they need to go. (So does the Navy). In the US it is not longer delineated into any force doing anything without the support of the others. It is called Joint Operations for a reason. I am just surmising that the ships may be Air Force, but they will carry marines and army. The navy may have the role of the larger carrier type vessels that can launch smaller planes for localized (space) combat, while the air force moves people and equipment to the planet to actually fight/launch from the surface. So I don't think it is going to be as delineated as anyone may think. There should be tons of time to figure it out though.