Ursa Major’s additively manufactured Hadley engine reaches hypersonic speeds in first flight
March 12, 2024
Ursa Major Technologies Inc, located in Berthoud, Colorado, USA, has flown its additively manufactured Hadley engine for the first time, reaching supersonic speeds approaching Mach 5. The Hadley engine, designed to meet America’s commercial and national security space needs, was used to power Stratolaunch’s Talon-A1 (TA-1) testbed during a flight over the Pacific Ocean.
The Hadley is a 5,000-pound-thrust (lbf) liquid oxygen and kerosene, oxygen-rich staged combustion cycle rocket engine for small vehicles. Customers can use Hadley to launch small payloads into orbit or hypersonic platforms.
Unlike historical rocket engines, Ursa Major uses metal Additive Manufacturing to speed up the production process, allowing the company to build engines in a matter of days.
“For the first time since SpaceX fundamentally transformed space launch with privately developed rockets, Ursa Major and Stratolaunch have come together to advance a critical national mission,” stated Ursa Major founder and CEO Joe Laurienti. “Hypersonic flight has been a massive military and governmental challenge. Today, private companies were able to propel a leap forward.”
Hadley is the first product in a family of propulsion systems, including liquid rocket engines and solid rocket motors, designed, developed, and produced by Ursa Major. This engine, as well as other Ursa Major products, are said to enable the US Department of Defense to field solutions more quickly and push speed, range and payload metrics.
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