Sharing my journey through Air Force Officer Training School (OTS) and beyond.

13S Space Operations

13S/1C6X1 Space Operations Career Field

My overall long term goal for future posts is to 1) gather real inputs from Airmen (enlisted and officer) in ANY career field who can provide the no-BS what is it like to do this job.  I would love to be able to post this information on my blog to give people a good starting point for choosing the path for their career.

Secondly, I would like to dive deep into how to become a successful officer once you completely make the switch from enlisted to officer, or civilian to officer.  Things like second assignments, ADP, career vectoring, PME like SOS or ACSC, promotions, politics, etc., are all topics I plan to cover in depth.  Please let me know if you support this plan and I will begin making posts once I actually figure this stuff out for my own.


When I was scouring the internet for information when I applied I discovered this was not a lot of information out there about OTS, and especially about the 13S career field.  I somehow dug up this posting on reddit which provided me with an outstanding breakdown of what the 13S/1C6X1 career field is like (officer/enlisted AFSC, respectively).  Now that I am fully immersed in the career field, fully certified, and intimately familiar with my mission, I can now personally vouch that this is good info.

Here is the reddit post from SilentD.


My own personal updates to this post:

Returning to School

In the past, operators would return to Vandenberg AFB, CA after every assignment to train on their new system.  Now, initial 13S and 1C6X1 tech school is still at Vandenberg but once you complete initial tech school you aren’t required to return.  The initial tech school is called Officer Undergraduate Space Training (OUST) and Enlisted Undergraduate Space Training (EUST).  I am not 100% sure about what the current 1C6 timeline is, but for 13S tech school is still only a TDY meaning you will PCS to your first base then attend OUST as a TDY.  OUST is just shy of three months long.

After you complete OUST/EUST, you will return to your base and complete more specific system training there.  This training is considered Initial Qualification Training (IQT) or Mission Qualification Training (MQT) depending on where you are at.  This training will be an additional 3-9 months depending on what unit you are at or what your system is.  After you are fully certified you will begin working crew.

Here are my other posts about the 13S Tech School.

13 Comments

  1. Ryan McCourry

    I’m not doing OTS but I am in ROTC and I am very interested in being a Space Operations Officer. I followed the link in your post and it was very informative but I am still curious about the different routs I could take being a Space Operations Officer. Like I know the basic gist of what the career field entails but are there different jobs/ career paths you go into once you are selected to commission as a Space Operations Officer.

  2. Kaitlyn

    As an Air Force space operations officer how often do you PCS from base to base? Do you deploy often or ever? Is it hard to get match into space operations with a computer programming technology degree coming from enlisted commissioning to officer? Are there re-enlisting bonuses?

    • Comment by post author

      airforceotsguy

      We PCS every 3 years or so but there is a lot of stuff going on in Colorado. Deployments are very rare. Any STEM degree is desirable but I would say engineering and programming are higher than science and technology! But your degree is only one of many factors for job selection, that one is really complicated. No more enlisted SRBs.

      • Kaitlyn

        Thank you, very helpful. All I care about is getting into space operations. Any tips on matching into that?

        • Comment by post author

          airforceotsguy

          Feel free to shoot me an email at airforceotsguy@gmail.com. if you want a specific job it is very much all about timing and luck. There is no sure way to do it. Putting it on your desire list and having the degree you have is almost all you can do.

          The only sure way to become a space operator is to do Guard or Reserve. Have you every considered that? Are you near any of the big space units?

          • Kaitlyn

            I considered guard but I need the full time job. Maybe if there was a way to switch to guard to get the job you want and then switch back to active in that career field but idk? As I do more research I may end up switching to direct email with questions.

          • Comment by post author

            airforceotsguy

            This process for active duty can take several months, even years in some cases. If you have an immediate need you may need to find an alternative interim option. The advantage of Reserve is that you get the training and your foot in the door and as an operator you will work with employees from many of the big defense contractors.

          • Kaitlyn

            As an Air Force Reserve space operations officer could you get full time work? Say I’m in the reserve in Colorado, could I get hired on by that base full time. Because idk out side of the military how I could use those skill sets. Also if I switch to reserve/guard could I switch back to active?

          • Comment by post author

            airforceotsguy

            Yes there are covered positions in the reserve (and maybe Guard too) that are called Active Guard Reserve, commonly referred to as AGR. If you get these positions you are full time military just like active duty.

            As a traditional reservist (TR) you can apply for an active commission through a recruiter.

  3. Rodney Gorman

    What are the duty locations for Air Force Space Systems Operations, 1C6x1? thx

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