Draper is no longer formally a part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, though it maintains deep historic, collaborative, and geographic ties to the university. Originally established within MIT as the Instrumentation Laboratory under the guidance of Charles Stark Draper, the entity operated as an integral academic research hub that famously designed the Apollo Guidance Computer. In the early 1970s, it officially separated from MIT to become an independent, non-profit research and development corporation, allowing it to pursue broader defense, aerospace, and commercial engineering contracts autonomously.