Rocket Report: Winter is coming for Themis; Cowboy Space adds iron to the fire
I keep coming back to the timing of ULA's week. A big NASA contract and Vulcan's return to flight in the same news cycle feels less like coincidence and more like a deliberate reassertion of gravity in a market that's been drifting toward the flashy newcomers. Themis, by contrast, is the slow burn of European rocketry, testing reusable tech that may not fly commercially for years. That's the part I find genuinely interesting: while Cowboy Space is literally adding iron to the fire, the methodical folks at Themis are still trying to prove the physics of catching a booster. One of these approaches will age better than the other, and I suspect it won't be the one with the most dramatic launch footage.
What I'd want to know next is whether NASA's contract has any strings attached to Vulcan's schedule. A return to flight is one thing, but a steady cadence is another, and the agency has been burned by delays before. If ULA can deliver on both the contract and the rocket in the same quarter, that's a signal worth watching. If not, well, the cowboys are already circling.