Ursa Major

Company research

Public company, workplace, funding, and market signals

Updated Aug 5, 2026

Overview

Ursa Major Technologies is a privately held U.S. aerospace and defense manufacturer founded in 2015. It develops and produces flight-proven propulsion and defense systems for hypersonics, solid rocket motors, space mobility, and launch, using additive manufacturing and modular architectures to deliver systems faster than legacy suppliers. Public materials say it has delivered more than 100 engines and conducted more than 100,000 seconds of hot-fire testing.

Primary product

Mission-ready propulsion and defense systems: Hadley and Draper liquid engines, Lynx and other solid rocket motors, hypersonic systems, and satellite/in-space propulsion.

Founded

2015

Headquarters

Berthoud, Colorado, United States

Team size

300-400 (third-party LinkedIn/company data; public figures have varied)

Work style

Flexible

Industry

Aerospace and defense manufacturing

Sub-industry

Rocket propulsion, hypersonic systems, solid rocket motors, space mobility, and additive manufacturing

Offices

Berthoud, Colorado

Galeton, Colorado

Longmont, Colorado

Youngstown, Ohio

Remote roles advertised in the United States

Business model

B2B aerospace and defense hardware

Government and defense-contract development

Commercial propulsion supply

Engineering, integration, and manufacturing programs

Funding

Stage

Late-stage private / Series E

Total raised

$442.7M

Latest round

Series E · Nov 2025

Latest amount

$100M

Debt commitment

Nov 2025

$50M

Series E

Nov 2025 · Eclipse

$100M

Series D and D-1

Nov 2023 · Explorer 1 Fund and Eclipse

$138M

Series C

Dec 2021 · BlackRock funds and accounts

$85M

Series B extension

Dec 2020

$15M

Series B

Jun 2019

$15M

Series A

Nov 2017

$8M

People & investors

Leadership

Chris Spagnoletti

Chief Executive Officer

Justin Siebert

Chief Operating Officer

Jason Meredith

President, Solid Missile Systems

Kip Freeman

President, Liquid Systems

Chip Niemann

Chief Financial Officer

Chris Engdahl

Chief Safety and Risk Officer

Kayla Smith

General Counsel

James Swartout

Vice President, Strategy

Nick Doucette

Co-Founder and Vice President, Strategic Operations

Alyssa Gindl

Senior Director and Head of People Operations

Savanah Bray

Director and Head of Marketing and Communications

Founders

Joe Laurienti

Founder; former CEO

Investors

Work & culture

Mission-driven, fast-moving, and manufacturing-oriented. The company emphasizes national-security impact, urgency, resilience, respect, and getting results; its leadership materials also describe an execution-oriented, player-coach culture.

Work style

Flexible

Compensation

Official Colorado job postings disclose broad role-dependent estimated compensation of approximately $40,000-$250,000; exact ranges vary by position, level, experience, and location. Equity is listed as a benefit.

Benefits

Medical, prescription, dental, and vision insurance

Disability, life, and AD&D insurance

401(k)/Roth retirement plan with company match

Company stock options

Unlimited vacation, sick, and personal time

Paid holidays, including weeklong July and year-end breaks

Paid maternity, paternity, and adoptive leave

Employee referral program

Competitive pay and professional-development opportunities

Product & market

Pricing

Custom quotation and contract-based pricing; government development contracts, production agreements, and commercial propulsion/integration programs. No public standard price list.

Differentiators

—American-made alternative to concentrated legacy rocket-motor supply
—Additive manufacturing and modular designs intended to shorten development and production timelines
—Flight-proven Hadley liquid engine and Draper throttleable/storable hypersonic engine
—Integrated expansion into solid rocket motors and all-up-round defense systems
—Flexible propulsion across hypersonics, missiles, launch, and in-space mobility
—Rapid, surge-oriented manufacturing and scalable production

Technology

Additive manufacturing / metal 3D printing

Modular propulsion architectures

Throttleable liquid propulsion

Storable liquid propellants

Solid rocket motor manufacturing

Oxygen-rich staged-combustion engine technology

CAD/CAE and simulation tools including Siemens NX, CATIA, SolidWorks, ANSYS Fluent, Simulink, and LabVIEW (third-party stack data)

GitHub, Git, Linux, Docker, Grafana, ROS, Altium, PTC Creo (third-party stack data)

CMMC Level 2-certified cybersecurity practices

Customers

U.S. Department of Defense

U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory

U.S. Navy

Stratolaunch / Talon-A

BAE Systems

Sirius Technologies / Innovative Space Carrier

Astra Space (reported earlier customer/program)

New-space launch companies and other commercial aerospace customers

Competitors

Northrop Grumman

L3Harris Technologies

RTX / Raytheon

X-Bow Systems

Aerojet Rocketdyne legacy businesses

Relativity Space and other commercial propulsion providers (market-adjacent)

Scale & contact

Estimated revenue

Approximately $10M-$50M annually; a third-party estimate reports $32.9M for FY2025, while other company-profile estimates are lower and should be treated cautiously.

Signals & risks

Layoff

Jun 2023

The company confirmed layoffs of an undisclosed number of employees; a source cited by BizWest estimated approximately 27% of the workforce. This followed weakness and consolidation in the small-launch market.

Source

Other

Nov 2025

Management described a strategic pivot from primarily commercial small-launch propulsion toward defense, hypersonics, solid rocket motors, and space mobility. The pivot reflects commercial-launch market consolidation but also growing government demand.

Source

Latest news

Ursa Major appoints Chris Spagnoletti as chief executive officer

Ursa Major · Feb 2026

Chris Spagnoletti became CEO, succeeding Dan Jablonsky, who departed after leading the company through a major growth and technical-achievement period.

Ursa Major raises $100 million in new capital as it leans into defense

SpaceNews · Nov 2025

The company announced a $100M Series E plus $50M debt commitments, with Eclipse leading, and reported more than $115M in bookings through Q3 2025.

Ursa Major raises $100 million to scale hypersonics, solid rocket motors and space mobility

Ursa Major · Nov 2025

Official funding announcement covering the Series E, debt commitments, investors, bookings, and production expansion.

Firing on all cylinders: Ursa Major discusses a pivotal quarter

3DPrint.com · Jun 2025

Reports the AFRL Draper development contract, Sirius Technologies Hadley-engine agreement, satellite-propulsion work, and Youngstown additive-manufacturing expansion.

Surging rocket motor demand drives Pentagon to buy from upstart Ursa Major

Reuters · Feb 2024

Describes Pentagon interest in Ursa Major as an additional solid-rocket-motor supplier beyond dominant legacy manufacturers.

About / team Careers Hypersonics Leadership LinkedIn company News Solid rocket motors Space Website X

SourcesUrsa Major About Ursa Major Leadership Ursa Major Careers Ursa Major Series E announcement Ursa Major CEO transition, 2026 CB Insights company financials Series D/D-1 announcement Reuters defense-contract reporting

Jobs and careers at Ursa Major

106 jobs at Ursa Major

Director, Learning & Development

On-site

People Operations

Berthoud, Colorado; Berthoud, Colorado, United States

Today

On-site

Full-time