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Rocket company enters 2nd contract with America Makes

YOUNGSTOWN — Ursa Major, a rocket propulsion company that has a significant presence in Mahoning County, has secured a second contract with America Makes to qualify its copper additive manufacturing process for hypersonic flight.

The contract with Youngstown-based America Makes, the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, represents a $5 million investment — $4 million from America Makes and $1 million from Ursa Major, according to a news release sent Monday.

Ursa Major and America Makes began their partnership in 2021 with the establishment of the Ursa Major Advanced Manufacturing Lab at the Youngstown Business Incubator.

In the first two phases of the contract, Ursa Major engineers developed an additive manufacturing process capability for NASA’s high conductivity and high strength copper-chrome-niobium alloy, and produced prototype thrust chambers for the vacuum variant of the Hadley liquid rocket engine. Continuing into this year, the focus shifted from prototype printing to the production and qualification of engine hardware.

Over the next nearly two years, Ursa Major will use the $4 million to transition its copper additive manufacturing capability into flight-qualified hardware for its America Makes customers: the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining and the Air Force Research Laboratory based out of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, the release states.

Ursa Major will install a state-of-the-art printer to qualify its copper additive manufacturing process on a full-scale production platform. Once qualified, it will print thrust chambers to support Hadley and Draper flight engines.

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