Some 138 Air Force Reserve Command airmen facing a combination of Total Force realignments and BRAC-inspired closings have found refuge in positions at McChord AFB, Wash., and the base expects to pick up nearly two dozen more displaced Reservists, according to an Air Force news release. Realignment of AFRC’s 419th Fighter Wing at Hill AFB, Utah, sent about 50 Reservists looking for new maintenance positions, which they have found with McChord’s 446th Airlift Wing. The really good news is that the Reservists didn’t have to move from Utah, because the 446th has built four stops per year at Hill into its C-17 training plan. The C-17s pick up the Reservists at Hill and transport them to McChord and back again, but the Reservists must train for three days rather than the traditional two-day weekend.
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.