In the WSJ’s column “Free Expressions,” Jack Butler turns his attention, and ours, toward space.

Most of the satellites that make modern life possible sit in low-Earth orbit, no more than 2,000 kilometers above the planet’s surface.

Why are the United States and its adversaries so interested in this space, some 2,000 kilometers above Earth’s surface?

In what Mr. Butler describes as a rare bipartisan moment in President Trump’s first term …

… the creation of the U.S. Space Force as part of the FY2020 National Defense Authorization Act. And I do mean rare. Mr. Trump signed the bill into law on Dec. 20, 2019. The House voted to impeach him two days earlier.

Standing up a new branch service is often a challenge.

It must establish its mission, its place within the military, and its organization.

Space Force has faced all these operational difficulties. But since its creation, it has also confronted an unexpected obstacle—derision.

Too Much

Why is it that certain people who encounter a Space Force point and laugh? In “The Office,” Steve Carell and Greg Daniels, the star and creator, respectively, of the TV series attempted to apply their brand of cringe workplace comedy to Space Force in a Netflix show of the same name.

• Too much camouflage
• Too “Battlestar Galactica”
• Inevitably, too “Star Trek”

Those who made the lattermost criticism have some Space Crow to eat, Butler believes.

“Star Trek” was created by U.S. Army Air Corps veteran Gene Roddenberry, has long evoked patterns and logos already in use by NASA and the military.

Mr. Verhoeven’s adaptation of Robert Heinlein’s classic 1959 science fiction novel was a hyperbolic satire of its thought-provoking source material (which is still often read by soldiers).

The movie depicts a future Earth dominated by a fascist, propaganda-drenched government. Ergo, Mr. Trump is obviously either dumb, or telegraphing his intentions for the planet—or both.

Jack Butler has a newsflash for believers:

Space Force goons aren’t popping down from the sky to kill, enslave or imprison you.

That Donald Trump was president when the branch was created, and is president again, doesn’t invalidate its reason to exist, explains Butler.

Congress signed off on it. The idea for a Space Force precedes Mr. Trump. When he was president, Joe Biden undid—or tried to undo—much of what Mr. Trump had done. But Mr. Biden mostly left the Space Force alone, aside from quibbling with where its headquarters would be.

When you see a bright orange light in the sky in Southern California—a launch from what’s now Vandenberg Space Force Base—as Butler did last month, the need for Space Force starts to come into focus. What are we to think upon learning that China and Russia are working to turn space into a military theatre?

Their targets likely begin with some of those aforementioned satellites. But they also surely don’t end there.

Yes, this means Space Force is more than an aesthetic plaything for an addled second-term president.

It’s far more important than comedians appreciate.

“Give Space Force some space,” advises Jack Butler.