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