The Trump Administration announced Friday members of the U.S. Space Force will now be referred to as “Guardians.”
“It is my honor on behalf of the President of the United States to announce that, henceforth, the men and women of the United States Space Force will be known as guardians,” Vice President Mike Pence said at a celebratory event tracing the development of the newest branch of the military over the past year.
“Soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Guardians will be defending our nation for generations to come,” he continued.
“The opportunity to name a force is a momentous responsibility,” the statement reads. “Guardians is a name with a long history in space operations, tracing back to the original command motto of Air Force Space Command in 1983, ‘Guardians of the High Frontier.’”
The name also connects the force with their “proud heritage” and culture to the missions they execute daily to provide to the American people and its allies protection, the force wrote on Twitter.
The Space Force is responsible for a range of space-based U.S. military capabilities, including satellites of the Global Positioning System (GPS) and sensors that help track missile launches.
Three key objectives are identified as maintaining America’s space superiority; to provide space support to all joint military operations; and to “ensure space stability”—or to deter aggression and uphold international agreements in space with a persistent presence, similar to how the Navy polices international waters.
‘Semper Supra, or Always Above’
The star in the center of the design represents Polaris, symbolizing the guiding light.