By: Lior Susan and Seth Winterroth

The United States’ leadership across aerospace and defense is defined by the power of our propulsion technology, from the early days of solid rocket motors to the hypersonics of today. 

But decades of underinvestment in the systems and processes the U.S. uses to design, develop, test, and reliably produce a range of rocket propulsion systems has caught up to us. Currently, the U.S. cannot produce enough propulsion systems to meet the rapidly growing demand. As our adversaries have become more hostile (and innovative), maintaining defense, and propulsion superiority is now a high-stakes race against time. 

Ursa Major has stepped up to this monumental challenge, and they are attacking it from every angle. Beyond game-changing physics and engineering innovation, the company has completely reinvented the way propulsion systems are developed and manufactured. Founded in 2015, Ursa Major has rebuilt production systems from the ground up — a vertically integrated operation optimized for speed, adaptability, and industrial scale. This guarantees that no matter the threat level, the U.S. has the capacity to deliver mission-critical solutions to warfighters anywhere and everywhere they are needed. 

The company’s multi-channel approach allows it to grow into the next great full-stack American aerospace and defense company. Blending advanced production techniques such as additive manufacturing, precision chemical mixing, and 3D printing with modular architecture that allows for multiple product lines, Ursa is pursuing three massive opportunity areas: Hypersonics systems, solid rocket motors (SRMs) for critical munitions, and sustained space mobility systems. Now, with $100 million in Series E funding, the company is set to ramp up production of multiple defense and space-based solutions. Ursa Major will rapidly field the liquid-fueled, storable hypersonic Draper engine and scale its SRM and space mobility manufacturing capacity. 

Eclipse is proud to be leading Ursa Major’s latest round, and we see the company as the clear standout who can deliver products among a crowded field of propulsion startups that are still in the R&D phase. Along with its unique use of additive manufacturing in combination with proprietary technologies such as oxygen-rich staged combustion engines and advanced hypersonic propulsion, the flexibility of Ursa Major’s integrated system allows it to move quickly and with purpose. 

Expanding beyond propulsion, Ursa Major is the vehicle integrator on the Air Force Research Laboratory's Affordable Rapid Missile Demonstrator, and the company plans to continue its work in all up rounds for defense systems.  

This latest funding and manufacturing expansion comes on the heels of an extraordinary year for Ursa Major. Since the company’s last funding round, Ursa has achieved numerous milestones: Several successful hypersonic test flights, hundreds of SRM hot fires, and the opening of its 400-acre SRM facility (which broke ground in September 2025 and has been executing on its first-of-its-kind manufacturing process). The company has also announced more than $115 million in bookings through the first three quarters of 2025 from partnerships with government and commercial organizations including the Department of Defense, U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, Stratolaunch, and BAE Systems. Just last month, Ursa Major welcomed two new board members who each bring decades of experience scaling defense and aerospace technologies: Former Northrop Grumman CEO Dr. Ron Sugar and former In-Q-Tel CEO Gilman Louie.

Ursa Major is truly at an inflection point, and this latest funding will enable the company to dramatically expand to the industrial scale the U.S. needs to achieve its strategic defense and space exploration goals. Anchored by world-class aerospace engineers who were instrumental in developing the propulsion systems for SpaceX and Blue Origin and headed by accomplished leaders with deep expertise in defense-focused product strategy, government affairs, engineering execution, and industrial manufacturing, Ursa Major is a collection of the best and brightest in the field. Moreover, the firsthand military experience of CEO Dan Jablonsky and many Ursa Major team members puts the company’s mission squarely in line with the customers they serve.

Just as SpaceX revolutionized rocket launching by completely re-engineering how rockets are made, we believe Ursa Major can transform the aerospace and defense industry and in doing so, ensure the future of U.S. superiority.

More on today’s news from Bloomberg.

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