History

Charles Draper’s notable work regarding fire control led to his first experiments in inertial navigation. These were detailed in a 1940 MIT doctoral thesis by Walter Wrigley, one of Draper’s students.

The Instrumentation Laboratory created the single-degree-of-freedom, rate integrating, floated gyroscope. This enabled a stabilized platform and contributed to the start of high-performance gyros for ballistic missile guidance, Apollo, SINS, and satellites.

The Instrumentation Laboratory demonstrated the first celestial-aided inertial navigation system, FEBE, in an Air Force B-29 aircraft. FEBE was a predecessor to SPIRE and used stars as reference points to improve navigational accuracy.

The first compiler program written to translate mathematical notation into a usable program for a computer was created by Dr. Hal Laning. This effort started in 1952 and he achieved an operational program in 1953.

The Marine Stable Element (MAST) system, a gyroscopic compass, and a stable vertical unit combined into one instrument were tested at sea. Later, some of MAST’s technology would be integrated into the SINS and missile guidance system designs.

The Instrumentation Laboratory delivered an experimental SINS to the Bureau of Ships. SINS was intended for submarines that would carry Polaris missiles.

The Mars probe concept, developed by the Instrumentation Lab, led to a NASA contract. The breadboard model, which was developed later, became the base for the Apollo computer’s architecture and function, including navigation and control.

The successful launch of a Polaris A1 missile occurred from a submerged submarine, equipped with the MK1 guidance system. This was designed by the Instrumentation Lab and had a range of 1,200 nautical miles.

Draper received the first major contract awarded by NASA for the Apollo project, which was for the guidance, navigation, and control system. President John F. Kennedy agrees to land a man on the moon by the decade's end.

Initial research at the Instrumentation Laboratory regarding strap-down navigation systems was recorded in a student's ScD thesis: Theoretical Analysis of Gimballess Inertial Equipment Using Delta-Modulated Instruments by Thomas Wiener.

The first flight of the U.S. Air Force Minuteman II missile took place with an NS-17 guidance system containing a Pendulous Integrating Gyroscope Accelerometer (PIGA) designed by the Instrumentation Laboratory.

The successor to Polaris for the U.S. Navy, The Poseidon (C3) fleet ballistic missile, was first flight tested with a Lab-developed MK3 guidance system.

The USS James Madison deployed the Poseidon C3 ballistic missile, utilizing the MK3 guidance system.

The third satellite from NASA’s Orbiting Astronomical Observatory went into orbit. It was the first to feature a Draper-designed inertial reference unit containing three floated beryllium gyros (2FBGs).

We officially became an independent, not-for-profit corporation. The corporation was introduced as The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc.

The U.S. Navy deployed the Trident I (C4) Fleet Ballistic Missile, which was equipped with the Draper-designed MK5 guidance system aboard submarines.

The first launch of a NASA Space Shuttle featured a guidance, navigation, and control system designed by our team, alongside a backup flight system. We later upgraded the system for specific mission needs (e.g., Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission in 1993).

The maiden test flight of the U.S. Air Force MX Missile later designated Peacekeeper, featured a Draper-designed Advanced Inertial Reference Sphere serving as the inertial measurement unit within the guidance system.

We were the first to scale angular rate with a silicon Microelectromechanical System (MEMS) double-gimbal gyro, a MEMS Foucault gyroscope.

The Charles Stark Draper Prize was created in memory of our founder by the National Academy of Engineering to increase public awareness of the contributions of engineering to society’s prosperity.

One out of two Unmanned Undersea Vehicles began at-sea testing for DARPA. These autonomous testbeds were designed around our fault-tolerant processor and vehicle control architecture and were used to test mission packages.

We demonstrated the first micromachined silicon tuning-fork gyroscope. This created a noise of 500 degrees/hour per square root Hertz, which advanced research that led to military and commercial applications.

The navigation system for the USS Dolphin, a deep-diving U.S. Navy research and development submarine, was delivered. We later upgraded the system.

Multichip Modules (MCMs) were first delivered. We initiated work on MCMs in 1987, interested in the technology’s ability to miniaturize systems through compacted packaging of integrated circuits.

The WM Keck Foundation was awarded $4.5M to fund a three-year collaboration between us, MIT, and Mass. The Eye & Ear Infirmary established the Keck Neural Prosthesis Research Center, which became a baseline for our future biomedical engineering activity.

The first all-silicon sensor-based inertial measurement unit was launched on the Extended-Range Guided Munitions Demonstration Program.

The U.S. Navy began sea trials on SSN21 Seawolf using the first “fly-by-wire” fault-tolerant submarine control system. We developed and built fault-tolerant ship control computers and I/O units. We also developed the software for the operating system and redundancy management.

Our team delivered the tactical hardware and software for the Integrated Control and Display System for the Advanced SEAL Delivery System to the U.S. Navy.

The initial prototype of the micromachined Differential Mobility Spectrometry (DMS) system underwent fabrication and testing, which led to miniaturizing DMS technology. The effort was achieved in collaboration with New Mexico State University.

Our work for the first artificial blood vessel network using MEMS technology was reported at the MicroTAS 2001 Conference.

As part of the International Space Station Team, we were honored with the prestigious Collier Prize, sharing the achievement with NASA and other industry partners.

The free flight of the Draper-developed Guidance Embedded Navigator Integration Environment (GENIE) was conducted aboard the Terrestrial Test Rocket. This versatile testbed facilitates terrestrial evaluation of space payloads.

Cygnus flew autonomously to the ISS and successfully executed rendezvous and berthing for the first time. Our team played a vital role in the development of Cygnus's guidance, navigation and targeting algorithms, as well as its flight software. Additionally, our Fault-tolerant Flight Computer Network Element and software were used, contributing to the success of cargo resupply service missions to the ISS commencing in 2014.

A successful live-fire test demonstrated a self-guided 50-caliber bullet. We wrote the guidance-and-control software for the bullet and for the optical sighting system for use during both day and night.

Deployment began of the Draper-designed MARK 6 MOD 1 guidance system for the Trident II (D5) missile to the U.S. Navy submarine fleet. We are the prime contractor for design, development, production, and deployed system support for this guidance system.

We demonstrated the initial infection and viral replication of SARS-CoV-2 utilizing a wild-type virus in a human tissue lung-on-a-chip model. These experiments were conducted using our innovative PREDICT96-ALI (airway-liquid interface) platform and organ model.

Our team provided Therapeutics (a Gilead company) with preclinical units of three bioprocessing modules – acoustic separation, electroporation, and viral transduction. These modules are intended to enhance Kite's CAR-T manufacturing process.