WASHINGTON — In the face of mounting criticism from inside and outside the government, during a congressional hearing today Chief of Space Operations Gen. John Raymond has admitted the vast majority of space doctrine is created by "just adding 'space' before all space nouns.”

“I would like to offer my sincere space apologies on behalf of Space Force to everyone who put their space trust in us,” said Raymond. “We have probably not been sufficiently diligent space custodians of the space public’s space money.”

Raymond claims he did not intend any wrongdoing, and originally intended only to create a doctrinal stopgap to address an exigent national security requirement.

“Of our potential peer and near peer enemies, 100 percent of them are in space, most significantly Russia and China," Raymond told the committee members. "When I was appointed, I quickly realized that, where we should have had highly developed space doctrine inherited from [Air Force] Space Command, there was just a giant vacuum. I didn’t have enough space staff to produce it, so I started working on it myself just to get something out there we could edit later.”