Using space assets to support military missions will be an important part of the Air Force's future, according to Widnall. The service has been involved in space since the dawn of the Space Age, in areas of weather monitoring, communications, early warning systems, navigation, and launch systems. It has since become the universal standard for airline navigation, among many other uses. The growing traffic of commercial satellites points toward a growing role for the Air Force in space, not a decreasing one. Widnall found the key lessons from her Air Force experience not in technology, but in culture, leadership, and core values.
Every organization has a culture, and the best have a positive culture.
A positive organizational culture connects its members and gives them pride, meaning, and a sense of being part of something greater than oneself. Just as engineers can be separated and limited by a narrow disciplinary focus, Air Force specialists sometimes overlook the service's broader goals. In both, the need for team skills is increasingly apparent.