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Air Force Research Laboratory Now Working For Space Force, Too

Brigadier General Heather Pringle, left, describes the Air Force Research Laboratory's new partnership with Space Force alongside Joel Mozer, chief scientist at the Space Force.
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Brigadier General Heather Pringle, left, describes the Air Force Research Laboratory's new partnership with Space Force alongside Joel Mozer, chief scientist at the Space Force.

The Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, or AFRL, is now working for the Space Force in addition to the Air Force.

Brigadier General Heather Pringle is the commander of the lab. She said at a virtual press conference this week that supporting the Space Force has been a priority of the lab since last summer.

“We’ve done a lot at AFRL to adapt our processes, to onboard personnel and to look at the science and technology we are conducting and how could we better support this new service,” Pringle said.

Joel Mozer, chief scientist of the Space Force, says the goal of the new military branch is to look at space through a long-term lens.

“Many of us believe that we’re on the precipice of the next great space era," Mozer said. "There’s a lot happening in the commercial and the government sectors in space these days. So change is gonna come very fast and we need to be leading that change.”

Pringle says around three hundred Space Force Guardians are already stationed at the Research Lab. She hopes that number will rise to around 700 by the end of the summer.