The United States Space Force, America’s newest military branch, executes its mission with roughly 9,400 military personnel and an additional 5,000 civilian employees. This is a fraction of the size of other services: the Army boasts over 449,000 personnel, the Navy 329,000, the Air Force 325,000, the Marine Corps 177,000 and the Coast Guard 84,000. Yet despite its modest size, the Space Force’s responsibility in the defense of the nation in the space domain is expanding rapidly — and the laws that govern how it accesses and manages talent — are evolving accordingly.

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Colonel William A. Woolf, USAF (Ret.), is the President and Founder of the Space Force Association. He served over 24 years in the U.S. Air Force, retiring in 2018. Throughout his career, Col. Woolf was a space and nuclear officer, holding key positions...