A legislative proposal sent to Congress this month from the Air Force would combine Space Force active duty and reserve forces, ditching the much-debated idea of a Space National Guard.

“This component proposal is a new approach to managing reserve component forces by merging what has traditionally been called active duty forces and reserve forces into a new component that provides full-time and part-time service options to guardians,” Lt. Col. Justin Brockhoff, spokesman for Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, told Military.com.

SpaceNews was the first to report that the Air Force was proposing such an approach. Gen. John Raymond, chief of space operations, told SpaceNews it would help recruit private sector talent.

“We would be giving opportunities for people to go to the commercial industry, to go to NASA, and then come back,” he said. “Maybe at certain times in their life, if they want to have children, they can go part-time for a while and then come back without having to get out of active duty and then go into the reserves.”

Space Force photo