The family of the late Col. William Erlenbusch has presented Gen. Lance Lord, commander of Air Force Space Command, with a unique gift—the very first Air Force guided missile insignia, now known as a missile badge. In 1958, Erlenbusch commanded the 864th Strategic Missile Squadron in Huntsville, Ala., where he received the badge, which now will become part of AFSPC’s permanent historical collection. The badge will be displayed alongside the first prototype space operations badge presented to Gen. Bernard Schriever on June 20, 2005, shortly before his death, Lord said.
NASA, SpaceX, and United Launch Alliance are all preparing to launch their next-gen rockets from Florida’s Space Coast, two of them before the year is out. One is expected to liberate the U.S. launch enterprise from its reliance on Russian-made RD-180 engines, while all three rockets could eventually carry astronaut crews.