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Ursa Main, a startup that produces rocket motors via 3D printing, introduced at this time that it obtained a $12.5 million contract from the Division of Protection’s Workplace of Strategic Capital (OSC) and the U.S. Navy to develop new solid-fuel rocket engines. The corporate, which has raised $274 million in accordance with PitchBook, will match the funding, bringing the cash allotted for the trouble to $25 million.
The $12.5 million funding additionally marks the primary publicly introduced funding from the OSC, which has been mired in congressional crimson tape since its launch in 2022. The workplace is designed to draw extra personal capital to protection tech, however struggled to get its proposed $144 million funds via Congress.
The Navy’s funding exhibits the federal government’s need for improvements in rocket motor manufacturing: Proper now, solely a pair protection firms can produce strong rocket motors — a significant drawback now that the struggle in Ukraine has stretched the U.S.’s provide of strong rocket motors skinny. Invoice Murray, Ursa Main’s chief product officer, mentioned the motors that “we’ve got to interchange will take anyplace between 5 and 18 years on the present fee of manufacturing,” Murray mentioned. “It actually boils all the way down to counting on outdated manufacturing methods.”
Murray mentioned {that a} conventional manufacturing course of can take over a 12 months, whereas Ursa Main could make them in lower than a month. It is because Ursa Main depends closely on 3D printing, also called additive manufacturing, to streamline the manufacturing of sophisticated components and permit contractors to iterate on designs quicker. Mainly, think about a rocket motor half that normally requires dozens of components to be welded collectively. With 3D printing, the half may be produced as one strong piece.
The corporate, based in 2015, has landed authorities contracts prior to now, like final 12 months when U.S. Air Drive Analysis Laboratory awarded it a contract to develop an engine for hypersonic launch.
Murray mentioned the funding exhibits the navy’s dedication to supporting innovation expertise. “It’s the Navy saying that they need a startup to come back in and assist form the trade for the long run,” he mentioned.
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