The United States achieved something in March 2025 it hadn’t done since 1968: fly a hypersonic vehicle past Mach 5 and land it intact for reuse. Now Stratolaunch’s Talon-A platform is getting more powerful engines to keep that momentum going.
Ursa Major Technologies won a $32.9 million Pentagon contract in June to build 16 upgraded Hadley H13 rocket engines for the program. The Colorado-based company will deliver the engines over multiple years as Stratolaunch ramps up testing under the Defense Department’s push to conduct weekly hypersonic flights.
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Two Successful Flights Set the Stage
Talon-A’s TA-2 vehicle flew twice in late 2024 and early 2025, both times exceeding Mach 5 before touching down at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The December 2024 and March 2025 flights marked the first time the U.S. recovered a hypersonic test vehicle since the X-15 program ended nearly 60 years ago.
Dr. Zachary Krevor, Stratolaunch’s CEO, said both missions met Defense Department benchmarks within 1% accuracy. “With the data collected from this second flight, we are able to apply lessons learned to enhance the strength and performance of the Talon-A vehicles,” Krevor stated after the March test.
The flights happened under the Pentagon’s Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonic Test Bed program, known as MACH-TB. Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane awarded the testing contract to Leidos in late 2023, which brought Stratolaunch on as a provider of flight services.
What the H13 Brings to Hypersonic Testing
The upgraded engines solve a basic problem: hypersonic testing destroys expensive hardware. Each flight that ends with a vehicle crashing into the ocean costs millions and yields limited data. Reusable engines change that math.
Ursa Major’s H13 variant delivers 5,000 pounds of thrust using liquid oxygen and kerosene. The engine runs on an oxygen-rich staged combustion cycle, the same complex system Russia pioneered and the U.S. struggled to replicate for decades.
Chris Spagnoletti, president of liquid systems at Ursa Major, said the H13 can handle twice as many mission starts as previous models. “This version increases engine reusability with additional starts, driving down cost per flight while supporting new test objectives and mission profiles,” Spagnoletti explained.
The company builds the engines through 3D printing at its Berthoud, Colorado facility. This manufacturing approach lets engineers iterate designs quickly based on test data rather than waiting months for traditional production.
The Talon-A Platform
The autonomous vehicle measures 28 feet long with an 11.3-foot wingspan. Launch weight sits at roughly 6,000 pounds. Talon-A carries modular payload bays that customers can configure for different test requirements.
Launch happens from altitude. Stratolaunch’s Roc carrier aircraft, the largest plane ever built by wingspan at 385 feet, hauls Talon-A to launch altitude before release. Six Boeing 747 engines power the twin-fuselage carrier, which can lift payloads exceeding 500,000 pounds.
After separation, the Hadley engine fires and Talon-A accelerates to hypersonic speeds. The vehicle can reach at least Mach 6, though exact performance remains classified for some missions. Flight profiles include sustained hypersonic cruise, complex maneuvers, and controlled descent to a runway landing.
Testing Infrastructure Expands
The Pentagon awarded Kratos Defense a $1.45 billion contract in January 2025 for MACH-TB 2.0, the program’s next phase. Kratos leads a team that includes Leidos, Rocket Lab, Stratolaunch, and several universities to build integrated testing capabilities.
George Rumford, director of the Test Resource Management Center, said vehicle reuse matters more than raw speed records. “Demonstrating the reuse of fully recoverable hypersonic test vehicles is an important milestone for MACH-TB. Lessons learned from this test campaign will help us reduce vehicle turnaround time from months down to weeks.”
Stratolaunch is modifying a second carrier aircraft called Spirit of Mojave through a separate $25 million Missile Defense Agency contract awarded in January. The work will let the company operate from any airport capable of handling a 747, expanding launch options beyond the Mojave Air and Space Port.
Monthly Flights Target for 2026
Stratolaunch has five MACH-TB flights under contract plus a Missile Defense Agency test campaign scheduled for this year. The company filled its flight manifest through 2025 and began booking missions for 2026.
Krevor told reporters last year the goal was one test flight per month through 2025, then increase frequency in 2026. Early missions focus on expanding what Talon-A can do: faster speeds, harder maneuvers, longer periods at hypersonic velocity.
Mark Lewis, former deputy undersecretary for research and engineering who now advises Stratolaunch, pointed out why recovery matters. “In previous hypersonic programs, we had flight tests with results that we’re still uncertain about. If we could have looked at the articles after flight, it would have been far more revealing.”
Cost and Competition Drive Urgency
Russia and China both field operational hypersonic weapons. The U.S. has test programs but no deployed systems yet. MACH-TB aims to close that gap by making testing affordable enough to iterate rapidly on designs.
Dan Jablonsky, Ursa Major’s CEO, framed the H13 contract in those terms. “This contract directly supports U.S. hypersonic test infrastructure and the broader imperative to accelerate high-speed flight programs that deliver for national security.”
Market research firm Quilty Space estimates hypersonic testing represents a $6 billion to $7 billion annual market. Companies that built small launch vehicles now compete for defense testing contracts as commercial space markets consolidate around SpaceX.
Reusable platforms could cut testing costs by orders of magnitude compared to expendable rockets, according to Stratolaunch. Lower costs mean more test shots, which means faster development cycles for the weapons and defense systems the Pentagon wants to field this decade.
