Austin's Thoughts

The week hand­ed us a full plate, with Gold­en Dome con­tract action heat­ing up, Artemis 2 run­ning into a fresh com­pli­ca­tion, SpaceX set­ting reuse records, and two of the biggest names in com­mer­cial space qui­et­ly piv­ot­ing toward the Moon for rea­sons that go well beyond explo­ration. Let’s get into it. Gold­en Dome Keeps Build­ing Momentum —…

Anoth­er week, anoth­er reminder that the space indus­try moves at a pace that would make most gov­ern­ment acqui­si­tion pro­grams blush. From mas­sive fund­ing rounds to a Space Force that can’t grow fast enough and a Vul­can rock­et that need­ed a lit­tle post-flight inves­ti­ga­tion, there’s plen­ty to unpack. Let’s get into it. Vul­can Gets to Orbit—With an…

First, an apology—I’m a day late on this week’s post, and I owe you an expla­na­tion. Last week, I was in Col­orado Springs for the Rocky Moun­tain Cyber Sym­po­sium. Fri­day, I was back in Tam­pa to cel­e­brate my birth­day with my fam­i­ly, and Sun­day, I was watch­ing the Super Bowl. Between naps (jet lag was…

This week in the space indus­try felt like watch­ing some­one assem­ble a thou­sand-piece puz­zle with­out the pic­ture on the box. There is a lot of activ­i­ty. Mon­ey is flow­ing. Hard­ware is mov­ing. But whether all these pieces fit togeth­er into a coher­ent nation­al strat­e­gy remains the ques­tion. Artemis II: Human­i­ty Returns to Lunar Space The biggest…

The space indus­try con­tin­ues its relent­less accel­er­a­tion, and this week brought devel­op­ments that under­score just how rapid­ly the sec­tor is evolving—from AI-pow­ered orbital war­fare sim­u­la­tions to the grow­ing scram­ble among com­pa­nies posi­tion­ing them­selves for Amer­i­ca’s next-gen­er­a­­tion mis­sile defense archi­tec­ture. Space Force Taps Sling­shot to Train Guardians with AI Adver­saries In one of the week’s most…

The space indus­try saw sig­nif­i­cant devel­op­ments this week, with the Gold­en Dome mis­sile defense pro­gram con­tin­u­ing to shape defense pri­or­i­ties while com­mer­cial ven­tures pushed for­ward despite tech­ni­cal set­backs. Here’s what caught my atten­tion. Gold­en Dome Dri­ves Defense Dis­cus­sions The Gold­en Dome pro­gram dom­i­nat­ed defense con­ver­sa­tions this week, with anoth­er tranche of awardees on Jan­u­ary 15th,…

This past week, from Jan­u­ary 4 to Jan­u­ary 11, 2026, brought a mix of geopo­lit­i­cal analy­ses, upcom­ing events, and ongo­ing dis­cus­sions about major pro­grams. I have drawn on sources such as the Cen­ter for Strate­gic and Inter­na­tion­al Stud­ies (CSIS) and Aero­space Amer­i­ca to ensure the infor­ma­tion is fac­tu­al and rel­e­vant. Let us break it down…

The first week of 2026 has kicked off with sig­nif­i­cant devel­op­ments across both nation­al secu­ri­ty and com­mer­cial space ini­tia­tives. Most notably, the U.S. Space Force received recog­ni­tion from Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair­man Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine dur­ing his his­tor­i­cal brief­ing on Oper­a­tion Absolute Resolve, the suc­cess­ful cap­ture of Venezue­lan Pres­i­dent Nicolás Maduro. This joint…

What a week it’s been for America’s space indus­try. The Gold­en Dome mis­sile defense pro­gram has moved from con­cept to real­i­ty with stun­ning speed, secur­ing major con­tracts, leg­isla­tive back­ing, and indus­try buy-in that posi­tion the Unit­ed States and its allies for a trans­for­ma­tive leap in nation­al secu­ri­ty capa­bil­i­ties. Game-Chang­ing Con­tracts Hit the Ground Run­ning Thursday…

This week marked a turn­ing point for the space and defense sec­tors. Gen­er­al Michael Guetlein announced he’ll deliv­er Gold­en Dome’s “objec­tive archi­tec­ture” with­in 60 days. The indus­try is posi­tion­ing itself for what could be the most trans­for­ma­tive defense ini­tia­tive since the cre­ation of the Space Force. FY2026 Bud­get Pri­or­i­ties Sig­nal Major Shifts The fis­cal year 2026…