Space Force Art Features Perplexing Clash With Enemy Satellite

In yet another example of awkward branding, Space Force has unveiled a retrofuturistic painting depicting a confrontation in low Earth orbit, leaving us with lots to unpack.

During a ceremony held on Friday, the Space Operations Command (one of three field commands reporting to the Space Force) revealed its first official painting. The painting, titled “High Ground Intercept,” was commissioned with aviation and aerospace defense artist Rick Herter.

According to the Space Force, the painting serves as a “depiction of space as a warfighting arena, now and into the future.” The painting shows a U.S. spaceplane intercepting an “adversary” satellite to stop it from disabling a “friendly” satellite. The mighty spaceplane holds its ground between the two satellites, looking like an older sibling standing up to their little brother’s bully, leaving the enemy satellite shook.

The spaceplane’s design draws from the Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar, a 1950s U.S. Air Force prototype intended for military operations. The Space Force has its own plane, Boeing X-37, which spent two and a half years orbiting Earth on a secret mission before finally landing in November 2022.

Given the mystery surrounding its own operational spaceplane, the Space Force opted to use an outdated rendering for the painting. “Because of the highly classified nature of many space operations, SpOC requested that Herter rely on historic space planes and his own imagination,” Christopher Rumley, command historian, said in a statement.

In turn, the artist was forced to fill in a few gaps. “The most challenging projects are when a client gives the artist a general concept of what they want but can’t give specifics,” Herter said in the statement. “In order to get the proportions and angles of the vehicle correct within the painting, I built a crude model of my space plane design, which I could then use as my reference point.”

“It was not an easy task, but Rick was able to fuse where we’ve been as a force with where we are going,” Rumley said.

Since its establishment in 2019, Space Force has tried its best to communicate its mission to the public, but we’re not entirely sure the military branch fully understands what it does, or has effectively conveyed its mission and responsibilities to the public. In September 2022, Space Force released a theme song called “Semper Supra,” which is Latin for “always above,” describing itself as the “mighty watchful eye” and an “invisible front line.” A year later, the military branch rewrote its mission statement to a cryptic one line that read, “Secure our nation’s interests in, from, and to space.”

And now this painting, woof. It’s an almost child-like, sci-fi fantasy depiction of a space force, standing up to evil satellites and protecting the weak, feeble orbits of others. The primary goal of the Space Force is to protect the interests of the U.S. in space, which means it manages space launches, tracks objects in orbit, and maintains Global Positioning Satellites and various weather and communications satellites, in addition to fostering the development of space-based capabilities.

The Space Force, however, seems to be focused on one aspect of its mission, literally fighting enemies in space. There may be a time in the near future where space is the next frontier for battling national interests between different countries, but the U.S. is already putting up its fists to duke it out and that may not be the best strategy.

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