SPACE FORCE: There will be an honor guard on hand to greet Vice President Mike Pence as he arrives at the Pentagon this morning to formally start the countdown for President Trump’s plan to launch a sixth and separate service in the U.S. military known as Space Force. He’ll be welcomed by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who in the past opposed a separate Space Corps that would be under the Air Force, but who said this week. “We are in complete alignment with the president’s concern about protecting our assets in space.”

The Pentagon is also expected to release a congressionally-mandated report on its recommendations for how to address space as a developing warfighting domain, which Defense One reported last week proposes to stand up a joint services combatant command for space the same way it has for cyber operations.