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Space Force-USC Partnership!

March 1, 2022
President of the University of Southern California, Carol L. Folt, and US Space Force Commander of Space Systems Command, Lt. Gen. Micheal A. Guetlein, photographed by Chairman of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, Riki Ellison, at the University Partnership Program ceremony on the University Park Campus, Los Angeles, CA, February 28th, 2022.

Another foundational step in setting a cauldron of Academic excellence for the National Security of our Nation and to compete to win against the Near Peers, the United States Space Force announced a historic partnership with the University of Southern California. This marks the first California University to partner with the United States Space Force. USC has had an incredible relationship with the United States Military since 1914 and has been at the Academic center of the Los Angeles Aerospace Industrial Complex during World War II, General Schriever’s ICBM development, President Kennedy’s Space Race, and Ronald Reagan’s Peace through Strength which has dominated the world in Aerospace Engineering. 

“This is a remarkable and exciting extension of USC’s long standing partnership with the U.S. Armed Forces… Our agreement with the U.S. Space Force creates a new way for members of the Trojan community to serve our country and will leverage USC’s strengths in aerospace research and education to help build a diverse force of scientists and engineers who are focused on operating in a new realm.” 

USC President Carol L. Folt, at the University Partnership Program ceremony on the University Park Campus on February 28th, 2022 

“In order to succeed in our mission, the U.S. Space Force needs a highly educated and diverse group of military and civilian guardians who have the technical expertise and problem-solving skills to develop, advance, and operate the world’s most advanced space systems today and into the future of our congested and contested space domain.”

Lt. Gen. Michael A. Guetlein, Commander of Space Systems Command at the University Partnership Program ceremony on the University Park Campus on February 28th, 2022

(Pictured from left to right) Dean of the Viterbi School of Engineering, Yannis C. Yortsos, Director of Executive Education at the Sol Price School of Public Policy, Professor Frank Zerunyan, President of USC, Carol Folt, Chairman of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, Riki Ellision, and US Space Force Commander of Space Systems Command, Lt. Gen. Micheal A. Guetlein, at the University Partnership Program ceremony on the University Park Campus, Los Angeles, CA, February 28th, 2022.

Our USC SHIELD Executive Program founded in June of last year with USC and its Sol Price school of Public Policy and Viterbi School of Engineering, is aligned and harmonized to create, excel and lead on academic critical thinking and aerospace research and education of excellence. 

The next great Space Race starts here.

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MDAA’s mission is to make the world safer by advocating for the development and deployment of missile defense systems to defend the United States, its armed forces and its allies against missile threats.

MDAA is the only organization in existence whose primary mission is to educate the American public about missile defense issues and to recruit, organize, and mobilize proponents to advocate for the critical need of missile defense. We are a non-partisan membership-based and membership-funded organization that does not advocate on behalf of any specific system, technology, architecture or entity.

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