For as long as rockets have burned, they have demanded patience — catalyst beds warming for half an hour before a single ignition could be trusted. Researchers have now demonstrated that electrical current passed directly through a conductive green propellant can replace that ritual entirely, achieving ignition at room temperature in under one second. The breakthrough, tested on an ammonium dinitramide thruster, removes a fragile and time-hungry dependency, though it introduces new tensions around power consumption and combustion stability. It is a reminder that in engineering, as in life, eve