In 2023, the US Air Force awarded Ursa Major a contract to develop its Draper and Arroway engines.
At the time of that announcement, Ursa Major founder and CEO Joe Laurienti said, “Draper will become the foundation of America’s counter-hypersonic capabilities. Its on-demand launch capability and increased maneuverability make it an ideal hypersonic interceptor and allow it to better simulate hypersonic threats as a target vehicle.”
Since then, the startup successfully has completed a hot fire test campaign of the Draper engine at its facilities in Berthoud, Colorado. Now, the next step is to perform flight tests with Draper.
Ursa Major claims the engine can be used for military applications as well as for a host of applications within the commercial space sector. These include orbital transportation use cases, such as space tugs and satellites.