The Chief of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Air Marshal Mel Hupfeld has verified that Australia will establish an integrated space organisation in the next year. Hupfeld, who told the ABC the news on March 31, is currently heading up an analysis into the requirements for Australia to establish its own sovereign space domain for the Australian Defence Forces, which will be staffed by Air Force, Army, and Navy personnel, and will thus most likely not form its own independent branch. “It’s to allow us to establish an organisation to sustain, force-generate, operate space capabilities and assign them to a joint operation command if needed,” Hupfeld said. The world has witnessed an upsurge in military space programs, with China and Russia both launching their respective space forces in 2015 and the United States following suit declaring its own program in 2019. Hupfeld said that Australia would catch up quickly despite …