Lisa Kudrow has joined the cast of new Netflix comedy Space Force, the streaming service has announced.

The Friends star will play Maggie Naird, the wife of General Mark R Naird, played by Steve Carell.

The new workplace comedy is inspired by Space Force, the new branch of the US armed services announced by Donald Trump, and is about the men and women responsible for setting it up.

The Netflix series has been created by Carell with Greg Daniels, who was behind the US version of The Office.

Kudrow’s character is described as “a Washington Air Force wife who has sublimated parts of herself to her husband’s career for two decades. But as he takes on his biggest challenge, she is growing in a different direction”.

Lisa Kudrow and Steve Carell in Space Force (Netflix)

Carell’s character is a four-star general and decorated pilot with dreams of running the Air Force but is surprised when he is chosen instead to head up the Space Force.

He uproots his family and moves to a remote base in Colorado where he and a team of scientists and “Spacemen” are tasked by the White House with getting American boots back on the moon in a hurry and achieving total space dominance.

Steve Carell (Netflix)

The series will also star John Malkovich, Diana Silvers, Tawny Newsome, Ben Schwartz, Jimmy O Yang, Noah Emmerich, Alex Sparrow and Don Lake.

Last month, newly-established real-life US Space Force launched its first national security satellite, with a leaner staff because of the coronavirus pandemic.