Draper

Draper (formerly The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory) is a nonprofit research and development organization headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, providing advanced engineering solutions in navigation, guidance, control, and autonomous systems with deep roots in aerospace and defense. Founded as MIT's Instrumentation Laboratory in 1932 by Dr. Charles Stark Draper — the "father of inertial navigation" — it became an independent nonprofit in 1973 and formally adopted the Draper name in 2011.

Draper's most celebrated contribution to space exploration is the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) — the onboard computer and inertial measurement unit system that guided Apollo spacecraft from Earth orbit insertion through Trans-Lunar Injection, Lunar Orbit Insertion, and Powered Descent to the lunar surface. The AGC's real-time software solved the P63 Braking, P64 Approach, and P66 Attitude Hold phases of lunar landing, enabling Neil Armstrong to safely touch down on July 20, 1969. Draper engineers famously rewrote abort-handling code during the Apollo 11 descent to prevent program alarms from aborting the mission.

Modern Draper programs include precision navigation for GPS-denied environments, MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) inertial sensors achieving navigation-grade performance in miniaturized packages, and terrain-relative navigation systems for planetary landing. Draper's precision entry, descent, and landing (EDL) algorithms support NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) vendors, Mars sample return mission requirements, and autonomous vehicle navigation. Draper also develops autonomous guided munitions, strategic missile guidance, and submarine navigation systems for US defense programs under classified and unclassified contracts.