WASHINGTON – The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory awarded Colorado-based propulsion company Ursa Major a contract to mature two engines, one for space launch and the opposite for hypersonic launch.
Under the contract, the corporate will proceed the event of its 200,000-pound thrust Arroway engine for space launch, which Ursa Major unveiled in June 2022. Arroway will help replace the Russian-made RD-series engines, in line with an organization press release. It’s a reusable liquid oxygen and methane staged combustion engine for medium and heavy launch vehicles, and the corporate expects to conduct a hot fire test in 2025.
The contract can even cover the development and testing of a prototype of the Draper engine for hypersonic launches, which can be a brand new addition to Ursa Major’s current lineup of three engine models. The corporate already has a 5,000-pound thrust Hadley engine for hypersonic launches that’s currently undergoing certifications for Defense Department use under an August 2022 Air Force contract. Draper would proceed this work but use a special liquid propellant that’s more storable — hydrogen peroxide as a substitute of a liquid oxygen and kerosene mix — allowing the reusable engine to be operated safely from more locations.
A Ursa Major statement in regards to the award notes the contract would allow the corporate to construct a dedicated test stand for Draper and hot fire test the engine inside 12 months.
The corporate and the Air Force didn’t disclose the worth of the contract. An Ursa Major spokesman characterised it as an “eight-figure contract.”
“Ursa Major continues to be a vital partner to AFRL as we construct hypersonics capabilities and take away America’s dependence on foreign propulsion systems for launch,” Shawn Phillips, chief of AFRL’s Rocket Propulsion Division, was quoted as saying in the corporate news release.
Joe Laurienti, the founder and CEO of Ursa Major, told Defense News in an interview this spring that the military services are pursuing hypersonic missiles and counter-hypersonic defenses, but they still haven’t fully reckoned with the complete infrastructure needed to support those objectives. They’ll need aerial targets for tracking and intercept exercises, they’ll need hypersonic testbeds as they develop various sensors and support equipment for the hypersonic weapons, and so they’ll need training missiles as they grow a cadre of hypersonic missile operators, in line with Laurienti.
That’s where he thinks Ursa Major and its products — which deal with liquid propellants quite than solid rocket motors — can play the most important role.
Laurienti said liquid engines have higher performance than solid rocket motors but are harder to handle and store. The event of the Draper engine gets closer to the best balance of the 2 technologies: as a liquid engine, it should support high speeds, long distances and maneuverable flights, while also being protected enough to fly on the wing of a plane or be stored on a ship.
This mix can be critical because the U.S. builds aerial targets that may simulate threats starting from Russian hypersonic missiles to Chinese cruise missiles to North Korean and Iranian ballistic missiles.
He also noted the liquid engines might be refilled and reused — but Ursa Major also uses additive manufacturing to maintain costs down, meaning the engines can be inexpensive enough to be shot down and destroyed during live-fire tests if needed.
Ursa Major is under contract with hypersonic testing company Stratolaunch to conduct what Laurienti called the the first-ever private hypersonic flight within the U.S. later this 12 months. On this pairing, Stratolaunch has created a reusable cruise missile-like testbed that its customers can use to check their electronics. Ursa Major is providing the engine to propel the testbed to hypersonic speeds.
Laurienti said the corporate is eyeing other industry pairings like this, hoping Ursa Major can address what he called the “pain point” — propulsion — for personal industry interested by hypersonic flights.
But Ursa Major can be eyeing a possible business opportunity with the military. Laurienti said the Air Force and Navy bought and used greater than 5,000 AQM-37 air-launched supersonic targets over the course of a long time. The services are actually seeking to replenish their stockpiles and upgrade them from supersonic to hypersonic speed, he explained, an effort that might land the corporate a seat on the table following the newest engine award.
Megan Eckstein is the naval warfare reporter at Defense News. She has covered military news since 2009, with a deal with U.S. Navy and Marine Corps operations, acquisition programs and budgets. She has reported from 4 geographic fleets and is happiest when she’s filing stories from a ship. Megan is a University of Maryland alumna.