“Let’s not practice ASAT technology in Low Earth Orbit,” says Rick Ambrose, Lockheed Martin’s executive vice president for Space.

From 150 down to two — that’s how intense and ruthless the competition is going to be to win the Pentagon’s nod for the small launch vehicle market.

The R3D2 spacecraft’s cutting-edge antenna is “compressed into a small volume and then blooms on orbit,” explains Northrop Grumman’s Scott Stapp.

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?

Let’s not get too carried away. “We’ve got to earn our way to cislunar,” Will Roper said with a chuckle. “We’ve got to prove we can do LEO and GEO well.” Still, “this isn’t too far fetched.”