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SPACE MINING · OPERATOR PROFILE · DATA AS OF 2026-05-14

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.

52.3
ARI Composite
Moderate Risk
#34 of 40
Peer Rank
Defense cohort
—
Total Launches
No flights tracked
—
Estimated valuation
Not disclosed

FINANCIAL HEALTH

52.3
ARI composite · Moderate Risk
Peer rank#34 of 40
Peer groupDefense
Data coverage53%
Tracked gov contracts$1.29B across 32 awards
Full finance profile →

SECTOR POSITION

Primary sectorSpace Mining
Rank within sector#34 of 40
Tracked peers40

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.