Ursa Major's Hadley engine has flown for the first time, helping Stratolaunch to successfully fly its Talon-A1 (TA-1) test vehicle for the first time over the Pacific Ocean.
The test flight reached high supersonic speeds approaching Mach 5 and marked the first step towards flight of a hypersonic vehicle developed by a private company.
It also represented a landmark for Ursa Major, a company which is leveraging its rocket propulsion expertise to develop engines that 'satisfy America's commercial and national security space needs.' Through this endeavour, Ursa Major is leaning on additive manufacturing to design and manufacture its complex engine systems, with products like the Hadley said to be built within a matter of days.
Hadley is a 5,000-pound-thrust liquid oxygen and kerosene, oxygen-rich staged combustion cycle rocket engine for small vehicles, with customers able to use the engine to launch small payloads into orbit or hypersonic platforms. Ursa Major has solde dozens of Hadley engines to its customers, with Stratolaunch becoming the first to successfully fly the engine.
“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,” said 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.”
Laurienti was this week's guest on the Additive Insight podcast, with the Ursa Major CEO explaining how and why the company leverages additive manufacturing, while also detailing its materials development expertise.
Additive Insight by TCT · #171 How 3D printing enables the designs of Ursa Major Technologies' rocket engines
Commenting on Stratolaunch's successful flight of its TA-1 test vehicle, President and CEO Dr. Zachary Krevor said: "While I can’t share the specific altitude and speed TA-1 reached due to proprietary agreements with our customers, we are pleased to share that in addition to meeting all primary and customer objectives of the flight, we reached high supersonic speeds approaching Mach 5 and collected a great amount of data at an incredible value to our customers. Our goal with this flight was to continue our risk reduction approach for TA-2’s first reusable flight and be steadfast on our commitment of delivering maximum value to our customers. We are excited to review the data from today’s test and use it as we plan our next steps toward TA-2’s first flight later this year."
