But Col. Kathryn Spletstoser doubled down on her accusations against her former boss: “He could have raped me.”

“The external and internal communication regarding [DoD] smallsat strategy is not consistent and not clear,” Carissa Christensen, CEO of Bryce Space and Technologies, said wryly.

“Physics are physics,” says Rick Ambrose, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Space. “There are still some things for which a geostationary approach makes more sense. There are other areas that a Low Earth Orbit makes more sense, and everything in between.”

Trump nominee for Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett “is a force to be reckoned with and has the leadership, experience, and knowledge to lead our Air Force into the future during a time of increased global threats,” says Sen. Martha McSally.

Large networks of small, cheap satellites derived from commercial technology would be harder for China or Russia to kill than a handful of expensive, exquisite military-unique birds. But who gets to build it?

Air Force wants China and that other, much poorer competitor known as Russia, to worry the US is in the early stages of fielding weapons systems that will tip the strategic see-saw to the American side. As outgoing Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson made clear here today, it is, in part, a cost-imposition strategy.

Sen. James Inhofe remains cool to the Space Force and most of his colleagues on a key Senate panel sound like they’re right there with him.

The US has more to lose in space than our competitors, so the Pentagon is considering firing a warning shot to showcase what it can do.

“Launching hundreds of cheap satellites each year as a substitute” for current milspace systems “will result in failure on America’s worst day if we relay on them alone,” Wilson says.

The revelation, made by the Air Force Secretary during Congressional testimony, is the latest black eye for the tanker program.