Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England chided Senators who fear the C-17 production line may be shut down too early, saying, “At some point, we do have to stop the production of this airplane.” And, then, he got down to brass tacks—it was the money. England maintained that the “analysis” showed 180 C-17s to be “a sufficient quantity,” but then finished with: “We always have this tradeoff in terms of what’s the greatest priority need. And that was our decision last year.”
The successful second flight of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket on Nov. 13 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla., also included a first for the company—the launcher’s booster stuck its landing on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean.
