Ursa Major Debuts More Reusable Hadley H13 Engine to Cut Hypersonic and Launch Costs

New updates have been reported about Ursa Major.

Ursa Major has advanced its core propulsion line with initial hot-fire tests of the Hadley H13, a new variant of its flight-proven Hadley liquid rocket engine designed to improve performance, reusability, and manufacturing efficiency for hypersonic and light launch missions. The company positions H13 as an off-the-shelf engine platform, moving beyond the bespoke configurations of earlier Hadley versions to shorten lead times and support urgent operational needs.

CEO Chris Spagnoletti said that new materials and manufacturing approaches allow H13 to be reused more than twice as many times as previous Hadley variants, which is expected to lower cost per flight while enabling more demanding test objectives and mission profiles. Ursa Major is also insourcing major H13 components and vertically integrating additively manufactured parts, a shift aimed at tightening cost control and streamlining production.

Technically, Hadley delivers about 5,000 pounds of thrust at sea level and up to 6,500 pounds in vacuum, running liquid oxygen and kerosene in an oxygen-rich staged combustion cycle to achieve higher performance levels required for hypersonic and small launch applications. The H13’s combination of increased reusability and cryogenic propellants makes it the company’s lowest cost-per-flight and highest performing engine to date, reinforcing Ursa Major’s value proposition for both government and commercial buyers in contested and high-tempo environments.

The broader Hadley line is already flight-proven at sustained speeds above Mach 5, including operational flights on Stratolaunch’s Talon-A, underscoring the engine’s suitability for next-generation hypersonic testing and systems development. Built with roughly 80% additive manufacturing content, Hadley enables rapid design iteration and accelerated production, and the H13 upgrade extends this approach by standardizing a productized configuration that can scale across multiple missions.

For Ursa Major, H13 represents both a technical and strategic milestone, supporting its ambition to be a key propulsion supplier across land, air, sea, and space domains while revitalizing the U.S. defense industrial base. The company’s facilities in Colorado and Ohio provide the manufacturing footprint to ramp production as demand grows, positioning Ursa Major to capture additional contracts in hypersonics, solid rocket motors, space mobility, and launch as customers seek lower-cost, rapidly fieldable propulsion solutions.