Fabian Alefeld welcomes back Thomas Pomorski of Ursa Major to discuss developments over the past year across three focus areas: hypersonics, solid rocket motors, and in-space propulsion. Pomorski reports more than nine hypersonic missions flown with the reusable, ~80% 3D-printed Hadley engine and two successful test flights of the storable Draper engine with AFRL, plus progress on Ursa’s LINX solid rocket motor manufacturing approach using additive for tooling and cases to enable flexible “unit cell” scaling. They cover key hypersonics challenges around affordability and manufacturability and why a storable liquid rocket approach can reduce testing complexity. Much of the conversation focuses on AI’s current value in development: rapidly prototyping slicer features and scan strategies, building data-fusion and monitoring tools via EOS APIs, and enabling small teams to operate with much higher productivity, while noting production validation remains challenging.
00:00 Welcome Back Thomas
01:48 Ursa Major Year Update
02:37 Hypersonic Flight Milestones
04:05 Solid Motors and LINX
05:21 Additive Scale Up Tools
06:39 Hypersonic Cost Challenge
11:58 Solid Motor Unit Cells
15:37 Additive Geometry vs Supply
18:01 AI in Additive Workflows
24:33 AI Productivity Multiplier
29:33 Live Claude Slicer Demo
35:13 Prompting Claude Code
36:35 Sharing Team Workflows
38:40 Production AI Readiness
42:20 Slicer Feature Results
44:49 Closed Loop Optimization
46:46 AI Built Web Monitor
52:59 Automation Roadmap
01:00:12 Verifying Hatch Strategy
01:03:07 Advice For Students
01:08:29 Wrap Up And Thanks
