Ursa Major Hot-Fires New Hadley H13 Rocket Engine — 80% 3D Printed With Double Reusability

A New Era of Affordable Hypersonic Propulsion

Ursa Major has successfully hot-fire tested the latest variant of its Hadley liquid rocket engine — the H13 — marking a significant milestone in the company's mission to make hypersonic and small launch propulsion more accessible.

The Hadley H13 is a mission-upgraded variant of the H11 engine, specifically designed for hypersonic applications. According to the company, this new engine can be reused more than twice as many times as previous variants while delivering the lowest cost-per-flight and highest performance the company has achieved to date.

Additive Manufacturing at Scale

Around 80% of the Hadley engine's components are 3D printed, a result of Ursa Major's strategic vertical integration approach to additive manufacturing. The company has insourced major component production, creating what it calls a streamlined and cost-efficient workflow.

Developing new alloys with additive manufacturing has been the biggest piece of Ursa Major's process, said Joe Laurienti, CEO. The engine uses new materials specifically developed to improve performance and increase engine life.

Hypersonic and Launch Applications

Hadley is Ursa Major's foundational engine, already proven in hypersonic flight multiple times. The H13 variant is intentionally designed to fly in a variety of hypersonic and launch applications, offering flexibility for different mission profiles.

With new materials and manufacturing, H13 can be reused more than twice as many times as previous variants, driving down the cost per flight while supporting new test objectives and mission profiles, said Chris Spagnoletti, CEO at Ursa Major.

The engine delivers 5,000 lbf of sea-level thrust and represents a key step in making advanced propulsion technology more affordable for the aerospace industry.