Air Force Col. Eric Boe, a senior member of the Civil Air Patrol, took the flight controls for the Endeavor on mission STS-126, launched Nov. 14 on its way to support the International Space Station. It marked Boe’s first space voyage since joining NASA’s astronaut force in 2000. The 1987 Air Force Academy graduate began his flying career at age 16 with a CAP encampment in Georgia. He has flown more than 45 different aircraft in the Air Force, logging more than 4,000 flight hours. (Air Force report; CAP report)
The White House announced its United States Space Priorities Framework in a document released concurrently with Vice President Kamala Harris' first National Space Council meeting. Listed among five U.S. priorities is to “defend its national security interests from the growing scope and scale of space and counterspace threats.”