Australia Appoints Its First Space Commander 

SYDNEY - A senior female air force officer whose childhood idol was iconic Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong will become Australia's first space commander. 

Air Vice-Marshal Catherine Roberts will oversee the space activities across Australia’s armed forces. Experts have said the army, navy and air force have relied on space-based technologies and communication, and centralized coordination was sensible.  There is growing international competition for supremacy in space. The United States has a military arm called the U.S. Space Force while China and Russia both set up similar units in 2015.  But officials in Canberra have been keen to stress that Australia has no plans to further “militarize space” nor would it seek to build technologies to attack enemy satellites.