Kent Rominger: Northrop Eyes Vandenberg’s SLC-6 as Launch Pad for OmegA Rocket

A Northrop Grumman executive said the company will launch its OmegA rocket from Space Launch Complex 6 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, SpaceNews reported Saturday.

The U.S. Air Force leases SLC-6 to United Launch Alliance for the company’s Delta 4 Heavy rocket launches.

“Our plan is to use it on a non-interference basis as we modify the pad to accommodate OmegA,” Kent Rominger, vice president and capture lead for Northrop’s OmegA launch system, said of SLC-6 during a presentation at the 2019 International Astronautical Congress. “Modifications at SLC-6 are not as difficult as one might imagine.”

Northrop is one of the companies competing for the second phase of the Air Force’s National Security Space Launch program, which is expected to be awarded in 2020.

Rominger said the company has begun production work on flight hardware and expects to fly OmegA’s intermediate variant in 2021 and the heavy version in 2024.