Located on the eastern edge of Berthoud, Ursa Major Technologies engineers, assembles and tests rocket engines. Its smallest model, Hadley, produces 5,000 pounds of thrust.

The company is developing larger engines, including Samus, for use with bigger rockets. Ursa Major believes that 3D printing techniques can bring agility to solid rocket motor production, which historically takes years from design to testing.

The Leading Rocket Propulsion Provider


Amid a recent spate of layoffs across the space industry, a Colorado startup is taking off with its reusable rocket engine. Founded in 2015, Ursa Major Technologies designs, manufactures and sells high-performance rocket propulsion engines for commercial space companies, hypersonic vehicles and national security missions. Ursa’s patented staged-combustion engines, the Hadley and Ripley models, are designed to be vehicle-agnostic and can propel everything from small satellites to larger ones for cislunar development, mining the asteroid belt and eventually accelerating interplanetary travel.

Using an oxygen-rich process that’s 80 percent 3D printed by mass, the Berthoud-based company’s propulsion systems can save customers five years of development time and $50 million compared to in-house development. The company has received a multi-million dollar contract to supply its engines to the U.S. Air Force and several commercial launchers, including Stratolaunch.

Laurienti is also working to democratize access to space by supporting student groups like RPL, which helped him gain the propulsion know-how needed for his first company—and later to launch the world’s first student-designed and student-built rocket into orbit. His aim is that Ursa’s propulsion innovations will allow people to do their own experiments in space. It’s a mission that aligns with his goal of someday making it possible to travel to Mars in about six months. Ursa is backed by an impressive roster of investors, including RTX Ventures, BlackRock and Eclipse.

Building the Defense Industrial Base

The defense industrial base includes all the companies that make the end items and supplies needed for military operations, from large prime contractors and their suppliers down to small businesses with specialized components, such as those found in the rocket motors built by Ursa Major. It also includes innovative new technology developers, academia and research labs.

The strategy calls for more flexible acquisition strategies, including incorporating interoperability and exportability early in system design, to encourage innovation and expand the supplier base. It also outlines ways to strengthen economic deterrence by sharing technology and capacity with allies, such as through cooperative development agreements and joint procurement of advanced technologies, and seeks to limit military-unique requirements that might increase costs.

In addition, the Department of Defense will work to aggregate demand information across programs and signal it to industry so that firms can more accurately forecast their business from year to year. Lastly, it will develop fairer metrics to assess contractor resilience and train the acquisition workforce in those metrics.

The NDIS, which Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks introduced in March 2023, marks the first step toward a rebalanced defense ecosystem that can meet current needs and adapt to future threats. But it’s an ambitious vision with a lot of work to be done in the next few years, and its success depends on measurable actions that will be included in an implementation plan expected to be released later this month.

Bolstering Commercial Space Growth

As a pure play propulsion company, Ursa Major is platform-agnostic and will provide its rocket engines to any launch vehicle. This approach is a safeguard against the kind of consolidation and stagnation that caused America to become dependent on Russian engines in the past.

Founder Joe Laurienti’s mission is to accelerate propulsion innovation and make it available to anyone who wants to fly in space. He and his team design, engineer, and build their propulsion systems at their Berthoud, Colorado headquarters, using direct metal laser sintering 3D printing technology to produce the parts. The first generation of their Hadley engine generates 5,000 pounds of thrust, and the next-generation Ripley engine will be 10X more powerful. The names are inspired by sci-fi classics: Hadley is named after the family in Ray Bradbury’s short story “The Veldt,” and Ripley pays tribute to Sigourney Weaver’s character in the Alien movies.

With the latest funding, Laurienti will expand production capacity to meet demand for the current version of Hadley, as well as develop other next-generation rocket engines such as Samus and a hypersonic engine called Arroway. This expansion will help create jobs in the US and enable new companies to fly to low-Earth orbit and beyond.

Solving Supply Chain Risks

With significant venture capital funding and a rapidly expanding customer base, Ursa Major is positioned to play a significant behind-the-scenes role in United States national security. By accelerating innovation in space propulsion, the company can reduce our dependence on Russian engines while delivering scalable rocket motors to commercial and government customers.

Supply chain risk is the threat of a disruption in the flow of goods or services, whether that’s due to natural disasters, political instability, changing regulations or other factors that could negatively impact production and delivery. A healthy supply chain mitigates these risks through a combination of prevention, preparedness, response and recovery strategies.

Ensure your organization is well-prepared for potential supply chain interruptions with these tips:

Conduct a risk assessment to identify potential risks and prioritize them by their impact and likelihood of occurrence. Create a risk mitigation plan and test it regularly with scenario analysis. Develop and implement a business continuity plan with your suppliers. Establish data stewardship protocols to determine who owns what information and when it can be accessed.

The Ursa Major Technologies Lynx production system provides a cost-effective, surge capable, and expedited manufacturing process for solid rocket motor (SRM) systems. This modular, flexible design enables rapid production of multiple SRM systems simultaneously and without the need for costly re-tooling. Ursa Major’s patented technology also supports monolithic case manufacture including the incorporation of aero surfaces and internal motor features.

If you are interested in learning more about Ursa Major Technologies, you can visit their website, follow them on Twitter, or subscribe to their newsletter. You can also contact them at [email protected] for any inquiries or opportunities. Ursa Major is always looking for talented and passionate people to join its team and help shape the future of rocket propulsion.

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