U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala) questioned President Biden’s nominee to lead the U.S. Space Command Wednesday about a looming Chinese threat to America in space and the urgency of educating a new generation of space defenders.

But first, Tuberville told U.S. Space Force Lt. Gen. Stephen Whiting, the command nominee, and fellow Senate Armed Services Committee members that he wasn’t “going to make a long dissertation,” but, “It’s been three years and we do not have a permanent home yet for Space Command. And it’s a shame we’ve gotten into politics (about the decision).”

Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville ranked highest in an early base candidates’ competition including a ranking higher than the command’s startup home in Colorado Springs, Colo.. But the Pentagon hasn’t begun an effort to move the command from Colorado Springs, Colo, where it was started. “Even for Washington, it’s very slow…,” Tuberville said Wednesday, “so, hopefully, we get that done in the near future.”

Tuberville did not ask Whiting to respond to the base controversy, however, and he turned to a series of questions starting with, “What’s our top threat in space right now?”

“The growing Chinese counter-space capability both from reversable threats like jamming all the way up to the direct (anti-satellite missiles) and lasers we’ve seen them testing,” Whiting said.

Tuberville asked if the command is getting the workforce it needs. “What do we need to approve?” he asked.

Whiting replied that the command has “incredible space capabilities … satellites … and rockets,” but staff is the most critical asset. He said the government must invest in STEM activities adding, “We have a great opportunity given all the great things that commercial industry and NASA are doing right now to leverage that excitement to bring these young men and women into our organizations.”

Tuberville asked about getting people for Space Command through cyber education. “One of my sons is in cyber,” Tuberville said, “but it’s very new and it’s very complicated.”

“The soft underbelly of our space capabilities is cyber,” Whiting said, “because our space networks are truly global in nature but they also reach out to 22,000 miles above the Earth’s surface to geo-synchronous orbit and that creates a lot of novel attack surface.”

“Potential adversaries like Russia and China could attack us in the space domain,” Whiting said, “but they would rather (attack) in the cyber domain because it’s cheaper to them and harder for us to attribute.”

The Space Force is planning to “pivot hundreds of guardians into the cyber defense workforce,” Whiting said. And the United States is “at the absolute forefront of cyber capability,” Whiting said.

Looming over the hearing and the command is a “hold” Tuberville has placed on more than 280 senior military promotions until a command decision is announced. He has said he is not planning to change his position before the Senate leaves for a five-week August recess. Whiting is one of those awaiting promotion, in his case to a fourth star.

Tuberville’s communications director, Steven Stafford, says the senator is trying to stop “taxpayer funding of travel and paid time off over and above what other servicemembers receive” for elective abortions.

Here is the official Defense Department policy as of Feb. 16. Here is more in-depth information. Watch the Wednesday hearing here.