Space.com is reporting that President Trump has officially signed the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, creating the U.S. Space Force (USSF) as the military’s sixth branch.

As we reported a week ago, the House and Senate passed the National Defense Authorization Act, setting aside funds to create the USSF and thereby consolidating the various elements related to space defense under a single branch of the military. The USSF will be part of the Department of the Air Force, just as the Marines are part of the Department of the Navy.

In signing the bill, President Trump appointed General Jay Raymond as the first Chief of Space Operations. General Raymond will also represent the USSF on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The USSF “will be stood up over the next 18 months, military officials said.”

“It was nearly half a century from Kitty Hawk to the creation of the Air Force. And now it’s 50 years after Apollo 11 that we create the Space Force,” President Trump said at the signing at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. “It’s a big moment. That’s a big moment, and we’re all here for it. Space … going to be a lot of things happening in space. Because space is the world’s newest warfighting domain. Amid grave threats to our national security, American superiority in space is absolutely vital. And we’re leading, but we’re not leading by enough. But very shortly, we’ll be leading by a lot. The Space Force will help us deter aggression and control the ultimate high ground.”