SPACE MINING · OPERATOR PROFILE · DATA AS OF 2026-07-28

Draper Laboratory

Active Space Mining Government HQ: Cambridge, Massachusetts Founded 1932

Independent, nonprofit R&D laboratory spun out of MIT in 1973. Historical designer of the Apollo Guidance Computer; today specializes in guidance, navigation, and control for DoD strategic systems, NASA Artemis, and CLPS lunar lander missions. Classified as an FFRDC-style nonprofit defense research lab.

53.3

ARI Composite

Moderate Risk

#38 of 47

Peer Rank

Defense cohort

—

Total Launches

No flights tracked

—

Estimated valuation

Not disclosed

FINANCIAL HEALTH

53.3

ARI composite · Moderate Risk

Peer rank#38 of 47

Peer groupDefense

Data coverage53%

Tracked gov contracts$1.30B across 34 awards

Full finance profile →

CAPITAL & CREDIT PROFILE

Government capital

$1.30B lifetime tracked obligations across 34 awards — top agency Department of Defense ($1.30B) (strict id-matched; unattributed award rows are excluded). Explore grants →
Source: USAspending.gov award obligations matched to this company. Obligations, not recognized revenue.

SECTOR POSITION

Primary sectorSpace Mining

Rank within sector#38 of 47

Tracked peers47

RECENT COVERAGE

Date	Source	Headline
Jul 18, 2026	SpaceNews	NASA terminates Draper lunar lander mission
Jul 08, 2026	Payload Space	Venus Aerospace Raises $91M Series B to Scale RDRE Production
Jun 30, 2026	Payload Space	Payload Field Guide: CLPS Missions

REGISTRY DATA

Legal nameThe Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc.

OwnershipGovernment

HeadquartersCambridge, Massachusetts

CountryUS

Founded1932

FounderCharles Stark Draper

AliasesDraper Laboratory, DRAPER LABORATORY, Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, THE CHARLES STARK DRAPER LABORATORY, INC., The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Inc, Draper

Key programsApollo Guidance Computer (historical), Artemis guidance systems, Navy Trident guidance, DARPA PNT programs, CLPS lunar lander (SERIES-2)

Gov customersDoD, Navy, NASA, DARPA

IPO statusN/A — nonprofit FFRDC

Source: space_company_registry.json · Operator homepage → · Draper Laboratory official site (nonprofit FFRDC) — confirms space systems portfolio (Orion GN&C, lunar lander partnerships).

METHODOLOGY

Launch history and subsystem outcomes aggregate from AstraVeris's launch_events table with Wilson 95% lower bounds on success rates. ARI scores come from the 11-factor composite (/finance/methodology/). Constellation counts derive from the live CelesTrak/GCAT object catalog. Gov contracts from USAspending.gov awards; private deals from deduplicated pipeline deal extraction. Absence of a row means "not tracked" — we never fabricate. See /methodology/ for the full data model and /data-licensing/ for licensing terms.

Not investment advice. For insurance underwriting, verify against primary-source filings and operator investigation reports.