PETERSON AFB, Colo. — The faculty of the newly founded Space War College is finding it difficult to slip the surly bonds of Earthly doctrine.

For generations, senior service colleges have relied on writings from Carl von Clausewitz, a 19th century Prussian general, and other great commanders such as Jomini, Sun Tzu and George Armstrong Custer as foundations for strategic theory.

From an office decorated with models from Captain Marvel, Col. Adam “Gotta Problem” Houston, Space War College Academic Dean, described the issues with adapting their concepts to space operations.

“It's way harder than we thought to find grounding for space doctrine,” Houston said, “mostly because there actually is no such thing as space doctrine, for starters.”