A five-segment solid rocket booster that ATK built for NASA‘s Space Launch System has passed a critical design review and is deemed ready to go through a qualification test. “Achieving this milestone is a tremendous accomplishment for ATK and NASA as we continue building the boosters for America’s Space Launch System,” Charlie Precourt, ATK vice […] More

Northrop Grumman has demonstrated the thrust, internal insulation and other performance aspects of a new 63-inch-diameter strap-on booster designed to propel United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur heavy-lift rocket. The company said Thursday its Graphite Epoxy Motor 63XL, a new variant of the GEM 63 booster, generated almost 449,000 pounds of thrust during a 90-second validation ground test in Promontory, Utah.

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Northrop Grumman has performed the initial ground test of a graphite epoxy motor designed to power the Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle being developed by Boeing and Lockheed Martin's joint venture United Launch Alliance.

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Northrop Grumman has shipped a pair of rocket boosters for NASA's Space Launch System rocket to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida from a company-run factory in Promontory, Utah. The deliveries will allow the rocket to support the first Artemis mission that aims to demonstrate an uncrewed launch through integrated performance between SLS, NASA ground operations and the Orion Spacecraft, Northrop said Monday.

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United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV rocket lifted off Friday carrying the U.S. Air Force’s satellite communications platform designed to support U.S. forces and allied troops.

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Orbital ATK has completed casting the first motor of the OmegA rocket with approximately 55 600-gallon mixes of inert propellant. The company said Tuesday it wrapped up the casting process in April for the Castor 600 aft segment as part of the Common Boost Segment program for OmegA, previously called Next-Generation Launcher. Orbital ATK built […] More

Orbital ATK supplied a composite fairing component and nine graphite epoxy motors – GEM 40 – for a United Launch Alliance-built Delta II rocket that took off Saturday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The first Joint Polar Satellite System that NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration developed through a collaborative effort launched aboard the Delta […] More

Orbital ATK has secured a five-year, $48 million contract from the Missile Defense Agency to help sustain Trident I and Orion rocket motors the agency intends to use in target and interceptor vehicles. The company said Wednesday it will provide engineering, test and analysis, motor logistics storage and disposal static test, and flight test motor preparation support under the […] More

NASA will subject the booster for a Boeing-built rocket to a second ground qualification test on June 28 at an Orbital ATK facility in Utah. The space agency will broadcast Tuesday the live coverage of the two-minute booster test for the Space Launch System via NASA Television and then conduct a media teleconference to evaluate the live-fire […] More

Orbital ATK has set up the second qualification motor for NASA‘s Space Launch System boosters ahead of a ground test to assess the boosters’ performance against low temperatures on June 28. The company said Monday the static-fire test of the second motor called QM-2 follows the ground test of QM-1 in 2015. “Testing before flight is critical to ensure reliability and […] More

NASA took the first step Friday in what it hopes to be a new era for human space exploration as the agency sent the Orion capsule into a nearly four-hour orbit to evaluate its potential for future missions via Boeing‘s Space Launch System. Engineers for NASA and Orion constructor Lockheed Martin focused much of their attention […] More