The Air Force Research Laboratory has exercised a $10.9 million option on its contract with Ursa Major Technologies Inc. to keep developing Draper, the company's storable liquid rocket engine built for hypersonic applications. The move funds continued work on an engine that has already flown in government test missions, pushing the program closer to a formal qualification milestone set for late next year.
A Contract Option Tied to Flight Success
According to BizWest, the laboratory, known as AFRL, authorized the funding to continue maturing Draper for tactical hypersonic use. Ursa Major said in its own announcement that “the Air Force Research Laboratory has exercised a $10.9M option on Ursa Major's contract to continue development of Draper,” as detailed in a company press release. That release also noted the option followed “successful flights of the Affordable Rapid Missile Demonstrator as part of the same contract,” a testbed vehicle that has carried Draper through multiple flight attempts this year.
Jason Meredith, Ursa Major's president, framed the award as a continuation of a long-running partnership rather than a standalone win. “This award keeps that work progressing, and it moves us closer to putting real capability in the hands of the warfighter,” Meredith said, per the company's statement. He added that Draper sits at the center of Ursa Major's hypersonics push, with AFRL and the Air Force serving as partners from the program's earliest days.
Qualification Target Set for Late 2027
The newly funded work is meant to mature Draper's Block 1 variant into what the company describes as an engine ready for qualification, according to trade outlet Defense Daily. The publication reported the goal is to have the engine ready to begin qualification in December 2027.
Ursa Major's hypersonics portfolio centers on two engines: Draper, described by the company as storable and tactical, and the Hadley liquid rocket engine, which powers the Department of War's hypersonic test bed. The portfolio also includes the HAVOC Missile System, per the company's release. Draper itself has already flown aboard AFRL test vehicles, giving the program a flight record to point to as it seeks further government investment.
A Year of Escalating Flight Tests
The contract option caps months of incremental flight milestones for the program. Ursa Major reported that an Affordable Rapid Missile Demonstrator flight powered by Draper reached supersonic speeds in March, a result the company called part of its broader hypersonic flight demonstration effort in a separate press release. Two months later, the company announced a follow-on flight that came just 45 days after the prior one, which it said expanded the mission profile and test objectives. Ursa Major described the overall program as achieving what it called an unprecedented development-to-flight timeline of just eight months.
The Nov. 12 option is not the first time AFRL has funded Draper's development. SpaceNews previously reported that Ursa Major secured a separate $28.5 million contract from the laboratory to conduct the engine's first flight test. A later contract, worth $28.6 million and awarded by AFRL's Rocket Propulsion Division for follow-on work on Draper, was reported by 3DPrint.com. The available evidence does not establish how this week's $10.9 million option relates to those earlier contract totals or what the full value of the underlying agreement is.
