GEO Propulsion Systems Contract Awarded to Ursa Major
Company Also Announces Partnership with Palantir
A contract for delivery of fully integrated GEO propulsion systems has been awarded to Ursa Major by an unnamed customer focused on critical space missions. The multi-year award totaling $10 to $15 million supports the development, manufacturing, assembly, integration, and testing of a full propulsion system capable of six degree-of-freedom maneuverability.
"This award demonstrates the engineering rigor in propulsion systems to yield a new generation of highly maneuverable buses.”
Dan Jablonsky, Ursa Major
Building upon successful flights for hypersonic and defense applications in 2024, Ursa Major is leveraging its expertise in scaling manufacturing of propulsion systems to provide unfettered access to space. The recent growth in the satellite industry has demonstrated an increased demand for advanced propulsion systems that provide efficient mobility for maneuverability, collision avoidance, and timely deorbiting. One pillar to a responsive space domain is a resilient supply chain that can meet the necessary mission lead times. Ursa Major is responding to this need with an off-the-shelf and scalable manufacturing approach to enable rapid delivery of mission critical capabilities.
"This award demonstrates the engineering rigor in propulsion systems to yield a new generation of highly maneuverable buses at significantly faster lead times than currently fielded systems," said Ursa Major CEO Dan Jablonsky.
The development and production work of these in-space propulsion systems will take place at Ursa Major's design, test, and production facility in Berthoud, Colorado and apply advanced digital manufacturing processes alongside vertical integration of key technologies to enable rapid deployment.
In another development, the company announced a partnership to bring Palantir’s Warp Speed manufacturing OS technology to the Ursa Major rocket propulsion manufacturing process. The agreement was announced at the recent AIPCon.
Through full system integration, the partnership will further strengthen Ursa Major’s digital backbone to deliver innovative, cost-effective, and mission critical hardware using advanced manufacturing methods at higher and faster rates. Ursa Major develops advanced propulsion for hypersonic and solid rocket motor systems to meet the needs of American warfighters and aerospace customers. This announcement builds on Ursa Major’s commitment to harness the best of the defense technology ecosystem and ensure continued innovation at scale. Warp Speed will build on Ursa Major’s goal of rapidly delivering cost-effective technologies to meet U.S. national security objectives.
Palantir’s Warp Speed will allow Ursa Major to integrate a one-stop command for all manufacturing, business data, and logic resulting in even faster delivery of products to Ursa Major’s customers.