Space Force Logo. (Screenshot via President Trump’s Twitter)

The engines of America are still churning, albeit a little slower these days. Our mission of greatness doesn’t end because of a virus.

When Trump announced the formation of Space Force as a new military branch, jokes ensued. It does sound quite ridiculous to say out loud, but the concept is necessary and will likely go down in the coming decades as one of Trump’s most inspired legacies. There are a lot of yet undiscovered resources in space and, at some point, we may be called upon to protect those resources and/or the people who go to obtain those resources.

Space Force is no longer just a punchline. On Thursday, they initiated their first official mission, a satellite launch aimed at improving U.S. military communications capabilities. The Atlas V rocket is the first to bear the official Space Force logo and will add the sixth and final Advanced Extremely High-Frequency satellite (AEHF-6) satellite to geostationary orbit, which is about 22,000 miles above the earth.

Space.com reports the satellite system will also benefit our international allies.

The six-satellite system “provides vastly improved global, survivable, protected communications capabilities for strategic command and tactical warfighters operating on ground, sea and air platforms,” representatives of aerospace company Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor for AEHF, wrote in a mission description. “The jam-resistant system also serves international partners including Canada, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.”

The first five AEHF craft are already up, having launched in August 2010, May 2012, September 2013, October 2018 and August 2019, all atop Atlas V rockets. The system has been operational since 2015, and the satellites have a 14-year design lifetime.

Here is video of the first official Space Force mission into space. America is already great.