Stephen N. Whiting

Stephen Newman Whiting (born September 14, 1967) is a United States Space Force lieutenant general who serves as the first and current commander of Space Operations Command. He previously served as the deputy commander of Air Force Space Command. Whiting entered the United States Air Force in 1989 as a distinguished graduate of the United States Air Force Academy. He is a space operations officer, commanding the 13th Space Warning Squadron, the 614th Air and Space Operations Center and Joint Space Operations Center, the 21st Space Wing, and the Combined Force Space Component Command and Fourteenth Air Force. He has also served staff assignments at the Air Force headquarters, United States Space Command, United States Strategic Command, the Chief of Naval Operations’ Strategic Studies Group, the Office of the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and the Air Force Space Command. Whiting transferred to the Space Force in 2020 and became the first commander of Space Operations Command. He is the nominee to serve as the second commander of the U.S. Space Command. Early life and education