The Navy has established a Maritime Space Officer (MSO) designator, 187x and will be actively recruiting qualified officers to form a community of maritime space integration and planning professionals. MSOs will provide the fleet with operational knowledge and experience in space related capabilities and operations.

The move was announced in NAVADMIN 189/21 on Aug. 26.

“Establishing the Maritime Space Officer community is a huge step in building the space technical proficiency the Navy needs to maintain naval superiority now and into the future,” said Vice Adm. Kelly Aeschbach, Commander, Naval Information Forces. “This move is critical in establishing a community of Navy space experts who can be intentionally managed and detailed to key Navy and Joint assignments.”

The Navy is wasting no time as plans are in the works to select the first group of MSO’s starting this summer 2021. The application process is detailed in NAVADMIN 189/21.

“The establishment of the MSO community allows us to leverage the unique talents of our personnel to ensure the Navy keeps pace with the rapidly maturing government and Department of Defense space enterprise,” said Vice Adm. John B. Nowell Jr, Chief of Naval Personnel. “This designator will allow for a specialized community of experts to professionally grow, promote and compete for space jobs in their area of expertise—tenants of our Detailing Marketplace and Sailor 2025 initiatives.”

The community is looking for officers with prior warfare qualification and experience who have demonstrated superior performance.  Prior space-related experience/space education is highly desirable.

To apply, officers are required to have at least six-years of commissioned service.

Those selected will be given the designator 187x and will be managed within the Navy’s Information Warfare Community under the MSO promotion competitive category.

These officers will fill key space-oriented billets at fleet and component commands within Maritime Operations Centers (MOC), Warfighting Development Centers (WDC), US Space Command, the intelligence community as well as at the Information Warfare Type Command. 

The MSO community will build its officer inventory by selecting officers each year through the semi-annual officer lateral transfer board process. Follow-on NAVADMINs will announce the dates for upcoming transfer boards and associated application deadlines.

More information and community contacts are available in NAVADMIN 189/21.

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