Photo By Airman 1st Class Olya Houtsma | U.S. Space Force Guardian and NASA Astronaut Col. Nick Hague Sits on console during a...... read more read more
On the U.S. Space Force's sixth anniversary, the U.S. Air Force Surgeon General’s Space Force Medical Operations Directorate's progress highlights a fundamental truth for the lean, tech-focused service - medical readiness is readiness.
Space medicine, a niche within aerospace medicine, started as a discipline for ensuring astronaut health and mission accomplishment. This specialized branch of medicine addresses the unique challenges Space Force personnel face in extreme conditions or very specialized mission sets, and U.S. Air Force medical professionals ensure that all Guardians are ready to play their critical role in the national military strategy.
During the Space Force Association’s Spacepower Conference, Dec. 10, 2025, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman shared the importance of space operations to the American public. “The U.S. Space Force is not just a participant in the joint fight,” he said. “We are vital to our nation’s security, and essential to the American way of life.”
He also shared that readiness and professionalism are foundational to the Service. “The Space Force stands ready with highly skilled Guardians and cutting-edge capabilities to fight and win our nation’s wars and to guarantee the American way of life,” he said.
The Space Force Medical Operations Directorate's focus is on delivering medically ready Guardians. Targeting a core challenge identified in early 2025 - outdated medical systems - the directorate staff championed the Guardians Aggregate Medical & Operational Readiness Application.
“This tool ensures that as the Space Force generates combat units for its new Combat Forces Command, commanders have a precise, real-time understanding of the force's health,” said U.S. Air Force Col. Scott D. Haning, Space Force Medical Operations Senior Engagement Manager.
In December 2025, the team pushed for a key upgrade to the Aeromedical Services Information Management System. In partnership with the Defense Health Agency, the directorate optimized the platform to track and communicate readiness data for the operational force, improving communication between medics and USSF leadership. This directly supports the strategic shift to generating combat-ready units by strengthening the entire deployment cycle.
These achievements are more than just technical upgrades, they represent the rapid innovation Secretary of the Air Force Dr. Troy E. Meink has called essential to winning. They are foundational steps in building a medical enterprise as agile as the domain it supports.
This progress reflects a powerful collaboration across the medical enterprise, said U.S. Air Force Col. Melissa M. Runge, AF/SGSF Deputy Director. “The directorate has a strong partnership with the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine and the Air Force Medical Command whose expertise has been instrumental to this success,” said Runge. “These partnerships are an integral part of our medical support to the Space Force.”
As the U.S. Space Force celebrates its sixth year as a service, the medical support mission is clear: in a new space race where every Guardian counts, their health and readiness will always be central to being "Semper Supra," she said.
| Date Taken: | 12.19.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 12.19.2025 14:50 |
| Story ID: | 554998 |
| Location: | FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 16 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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