Stratolaunch successfully completed its hypersonic test flight earlier this year. Image courtesy of Draper

With a recent air-launched test vehicle flight that came close to hypersonic speed, research company Draper has accelerated the potential for its flight technology.

Draper, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based nonprofit, provided the crucial guidance, navigation, and control flight software for the flight. That guidance system was built on the same Draper technology that NASA has used in its Apollo mission, the international space station and space shuttle programs.

“In a broad sense, Draper has been working hypersonic since Apollo,” Rick Loffi, space systems program manager and lead executive for Draper’s Houston campus, tells InnovationMap.

The navigation software controlled the first powered test flight of an air-launched vehicle that approached the hypersonic threshold of Mach 5, or 3,800 miles per hour, or five times the speed of sound.

Stratolaunch successfully completed the flight of its TA-1 Talon test vehicle in the Mojave Desert in March. The California-based company designs and launches aerospace vehicles and technologies, providing access to a reusable hypersonic testing platform, according to its website. The historic test flight landed in the Pacific Ocean, and achieved successful ignition, acceleration and sustained altitude climb.

“The Draper software is really what’s stabilizing the vehicle during flight…and controlling it as it gets up into altitude and speed,” Brandon Jalbert, space systems program manager for Draper and team lead for Stratolaunch, says “so it’s not doing loop-de-loops, or getting unstable…blowing up in the atmosphere.”

Draper uses model-based design and algorithms in its software, and for the boost phase of the Talon test, Draper developed a novel algorithm, which built upon its previous work for NASA, Jalbert says.

Aerospace manufacturing companies like Boom and Hermeus stand poised to pick up where the Concorde left off, and are racing to implement and execute on accessible hypersonic and supersonic commercial technology.

The Concorde aircraft made supersonic, four-hour transoceanic flights a reality, but only for the very wealthy, and shut down in 2003.

Draper is not involved in any of those ventures to bring accessible supersonic flight back to the skies. Its primary focus with hypersonic will remain with deterrence and testing platforms, Jalbert says.

But the company’s technology “has applications everywhere from military to commercial activity,“ he says.

“Our focus is to solve complex challenges of national importance,” he says, “whether that’s…helping our commercial partners, or working on civil or military applications. That’s where we see ourselves being of value to the industry.”

With the harsh conditions involved in hypersonic flight, advancing the technology has its challenges.

“You’ve got to have proper hardware and electronics and sensors that can operate within those conditions,” Jalbert says.

Draper originated in 1932 when engineer Charles Stark Draper founded what eventually became the Instrumentation Lab at MIT.

His work on inertial navigation theory paved the way for the use of the autopilot in today’s commercial jets. The lab was divested by MIT in the 1970s, and became a nonprofit. Draper has long been a government contractor and has worked on many military projects, dating to WWII.

Draper in 2023 secured the $2.2 billion renewal of a long-standing contract with the U.S. Navy to provide the guidance system for the submarine-launched Trident II D-5 missile.

The U.S. government has shown a growing interest in the development of hypersonic weapons systems, as Russia and China have developed advanced capabilities.

The Pentagon’s budget request for hypersonic research for fiscal year 2025 was $6.9 billion, up from $4.7 billion for 2023, according to a recent U.S. Naval Institute report.

“There’s a big shift, in deterrence, as well as offensive, on hypersonic,” Jalbert says.

However, the Defense Department has not yet acquired hypersonic weapons, according to the report, but is developing prototypes and testing.

Draper has a long, celebrated history with NASA, and its Houston office is housed at Johnson Space Center. Draper's presence in Houston dates back to the 1960s, Loffi says.

From the Apollo missions to the space station and now the Artemis program, which aims to land the first person of color and the first woman on the moon by 2026 on its Orion spacecraft, Draper has partnered with NASA every step of the way, providing its navigation system for space flight.

“Right now, our biggest customer within NASA is the Orion program,” Loffi says, with approximately 15 of the 20-person Houston office working on the project, in collaboration with the company’s Cambridge colleagues.

Draper's Houston office is working on NASA's Orion program. Photo via NASA

The company is also working with NASA on lunar landing technology and sub-orbital experiments, as well as the propulsion element and Gateway space station for Artemis.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s aerospace manufacturing company Blue Origin is also partnering with Draper to develop the Artemis human landing system.

Neither Loffi nor Jalbert aspired to go into outer space themselves, but rather to provide solutions to make that possible. Human spaceflight has been a lifelong passion for Loffi.

While he had lots of job opportunities after graduating from Purdue University with a degree in electrical engineering, Loffi chose NASA.

“I wasn’t that person who grew up dreaming of becoming an astronaut,” Loffi says. “I was old enough to see the Apollo 11 moon landing, and it did inspire me.”

His work at NASA began after the space shuttle Challenger explosion, in 1986. He was part of the agency’s effort to return to space flight, and worked on space station development, before joining Draper in 2011.

Jalbert, a graduate of Northeastern University, says his early work at Draper “lit the fires for my interest in space.”

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Houston hardtech accelerator names 8 scientists to 2025 cohort

ready, set, activate

National hardtech-focused organization Activate has named its 2025 cohort of scientists, which includes new members to Activate Houston.

The Houston hub was introduced last year, and joins others in Boston, New York, and Berkley, California—where Activate is headquartered. The organization also offers a virtual and remote cohort, known as Activate Anywhere. Collectively, the 2025 Activate Fellowship consists of 47 scientists and engineers from nine U.S. states.

This year's cohort comprises subject matter experts across various fields, including quantum, robotics, biology, agriculture, energy and direct air capture.

Activate aims to support scientists at "the outset of their entrepreneurial journey." It partners with U.S.-based funders and research institutions to support its fellows in developing high-impact technology. The fellows receive a living stipend, connections from Activate's robust network of mentors and access to a curriculum specific to the program for two years.

“Science entrepreneurship is the origin story of tomorrow’s industries,” Cyrus Wadia, CEO of Activate, said in an announcement. “The U.S. has long been a world center for science leadership and technological advancement. When it comes to solving the world’s biggest challenges, hard-tech innovation is how we unlock the best solutions. From infrastructure to energy to agriculture, these Activate Fellows are the bold thinkers who are building the next generation of science-focused companies to lead us into the future.”

The Houston fellows selected for the 2025 class include:

  • Jonathan Bessette, founder and CEO of KIRA, which uses its adaptive electrodialysis system to treat diverse water sources and reduce CO2 emissions
  • Victoria Coll Araoz, co-founder and chief science officer of Florida-based SEMION, an agricultural technology company developing pest control strategies by restoring crops' natural defenses
  • Eugene Chung, co-founder and CEO of Lift Biolabs, a biomanufacturing company developing low-cost, nanobubble-based purification reagents. Chung is completing his Ph.D. in bioengineering at Rice University.
  • Isaac Ju, co-founder of EarthFlow AI, which has developed an AI-powered platform for subsurface modeling, enabling the rapid scaling of carbon storage, geothermal energy and lithium extraction
  • Junho Lee, principal geotechnical engineer of Houston-based Deep Anchor Solutions, a startup developing innovative anchoring systems for floating renewables and offshore infrastructure
  • Sotiria (Iria) Mostrou, principal inventor at Houston-based Biosimo Chemicals, a chemical engineering startup that develops and operates processes to produce bio-based platform chemicals
  • Becca Segel, CEO and founder of Pittsburgh-based FlowCellutions, which prevents power outages for critical infrastructure such as hospitals, data centers and the grid through predictive battery diagnostics
  • Joshua Yang, CEO and co‑founder of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Brightlight Photonics, which develops chip-scale titanium: sapphire lasers to bring cost-effective, lab-grade performance to quantum technologies, diagnostics and advanced manufacturing

The program, led locally by Houston Managing Director Jeremy Pitts, has supported 296 Activate fellows since the organization was founded in 2015. Members have gone on to raise roughly $4 billion in follow-on funding, according to Activate's website.

Activate officially named its Houston office in the Ion last year.

Charlie Childs, co-founder and CEO of Intero Biosystems, which won both the top-place finish and the largest total investment at this year's Rice Business Plan Competition, was named to the Activate Anywhere cohort. Read more about the Boston, New York, Berkley and Activate Anywhere cohorts here.

Houston team’s discovery brings solid-state batteries closer to EV use

A Better Battery

A team of researchers from the University of Houston, Rice University and Brown University has uncovered new findings that could extend battery life and potentially change the electric vehicle landscape.

The team, led by Yan Yao, the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UH, recently published its findings in the journal Nature Communications.

The work deployed a powerful, high-resolution imaging technique known as operando scanning electron microscopy to better understand why solid-state batteries break down and what could be done to slow the process.

“This research solves a long-standing mystery about why solid-state batteries sometimes fail,” Yao, corresponding author of the study, said in a news release. “This discovery allows solid-state batteries to operate under lower pressure, which can reduce the need for bulky external casing and improve overall safety.”

A solid-state battery replaces liquid electrolytes found in conventional lithium-ion cells with a solid separator, according to Car and Driver. They also boast faster recharging capabilities, better safety and higher energy density.

However, when it comes to EVs, solid-state batteries are not ideal since they require high external stack pressure to stay intact while operating.

Yao’s team learned that tiny empty spaces, or voids, form within the solid-state batteries and merge into a large gap, which causes them to fail. The team found that adding small amounts of alloying elements, like magnesium, can help close the voids and help the battery continue to function. The team captured it in real-time with high-resolution videos that showed what happens inside a battery while it’s working under a scanning electron microscope.

“By carefully adjusting the battery’s chemistry, we can significantly lower the pressure needed to keep it stable,” Lihong Zhao, the first author of this work, a former postdoctoral researcher in Yao’s lab and now an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at UH, said in the release. “This breakthrough brings solid-state batteries much closer to being ready for real-world EV applications.”

The team says it plans to build on the alloy concept and explore other metals that could improve battery performance in the future.

“It’s about making future energy storage more reliable for everyone,” Zhao added.

The research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Battery 500 Consortium under the Vehicle Technologies Program. Other contributors were Min Feng from Brown; Chaoshan Wu, Liqun Guo, Zhaoyang Chen, Samprash Risal and Zheng Fan from UH; and Qing Ai and Jun Lou from Rice.

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This article originally appeared on EnergyCaptialHTX.com.

Rice biotech accelerator appoints 2 leading researchers to team

Launch Pad

The Rice Biotech Launch Pad, which is focused on expediting the translation of Rice University’s health and medical technology discoveries into cures, has named Amanda Nash and Kelsey L. Swingle to its leadership team.

Both are assistant professors in Rice’s Department of Bioengineering and will bring “valuable perspective” to the Houston-based accelerator, according to Rice. 

“Their deep understanding of both the scientific rigor required for successful innovation and the commercial strategies necessary to bring these technologies to market will be invaluable as we continue to build our portfolio of lifesaving medical technologies,” Omid Veiseh, faculty director of the Launch Pad, said in a news release.

Amanda Nash

Nash leads a research program focused on developing cell communication technologies to treat cancer, autoimmune diseases and aging. She previously trained as a management consultant at McKinsey & Co., where she specialized in business development, portfolio strategy and operational excellence for pharmaceutical and medtech companies. She earned her doctorate in bioengineering from Rice and helped develop implantable cytokine factories for the treatment of ovarian cancer. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Houston.

“Returning to Rice represents a full-circle moment in my career, from conducting my doctoral research here to gaining strategic insights at McKinsey and now bringing that combined perspective back to advance Houston’s biotech ecosystem,” Nash said in the release. “The Launch Pad represents exactly the kind of translational bridge our industry needs. I look forward to helping researchers navigate the complex path from discovery to commercialization.”

Kelsey L. Swingle

Swingle’s research focuses on engineering lipid-based nanoparticle technologies for drug delivery to reproductive tissues, which includes the placenta. She completed her doctorate in bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, where she developed novel mRNA lipid nanoparticles for the treatment of preeclampsia. She received her bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from Case Western Reserve University and is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow.

“What draws me to the Rice Biotech Launch Pad is its commitment to addressing the most pressing unmet medical needs,” Swingle added in the release. “My research in women’s health has shown me how innovation at the intersection of biomaterials and medicine can tackle challenges that have been overlooked for far too long. I am thrilled to join a team that shares this vision of designing cutting-edge technologies to create meaningful impact for underserved patient populations.”

The Rice Biotech Launch Pad opened in 2023. It held the official launch and lab opening of RBL LLC, a biotech venture creation studio in May. Read more here.