{"id":12225,"date":"2020-09-15T00:44:35","date_gmt":"2020-09-14T16:44:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/northrop-grumman-ends-omega-rocket-program\/"},"modified":"2020-09-15T00:44:35","modified_gmt":"2020-09-14T16:44:35","slug":"northrop-grumman-ends-omega-rocket-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/northrop-grumman-ends-omega-rocket-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Northrop Grumman ends OmegA rocket program"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Artist\u2019s illustration of the OmegA rocket. Credit: Northrop Grumman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Northrop Grumman says it will not continue development of the OmegA rocket after the U.S. Space Force last month picked United Launch Alliance and SpaceX as the military\u2019s two top launch contractors over the next seven years.<\/p>\n

A company spokesperson said Sept. 9 that Northrop Grumman is not protesting the Space Force\u2019s decision in the National Security Space Launch competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have chosen not to continue development of the OmegA launch system at this time,\u201d Northrop Grumman said. \u201cWe look forward to continuing to play a key role in National Security Space Launch missions and leveraging our OmegA investments in other activities across our business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Northrop Grumman proposed the OmegA launch system to the Pentagon in a competition for lucrative contracts to haul national security satellites into orbit. Blue Origin, SpaceX, and United Launch Alliance were the other competitors.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon awarded Northrop Grumman a $792 million contract in 2018 to continue development of the OmegA rocket, on top of an investment of more than $300 million in the program by Northrop Grumman and the Air Force in preceding years.<\/p>\n

The 2018 contract was an intermediate step in the Pentagon\u2019s effort to foster new domestic launch systems for national security satellites. The initiative was aimed at transitioning military satellite launches off of rockets using Russian-made RD-180 engines, and onto vehicles with U.S.-built engines.<\/p>\n

ULA\u2019s Atlas 5 rocket has launched more national security satellites than any other rocket currently in service, and its first stage is powered by the RD-180 engine.<\/p>\n

SpaceX\u2019s Falcon and Falcon Heavy rockets use U.S.-built engines, and ULA\u2019s next-generation Vulcan Centaur rocket will be powered by two BE-4 main engines made by Blue Origin. Blue Origin also proposed its own New Glenn rocket \u2014 with seven BE-4 booster engines \u2014 to the Pentagon.<\/p>\n

Northrop Grumman\u2019s OmegA rocket was the only competitor proposing to use a solid-fueled booster. The OmegA design consisted of solid-fueled first and second stage motors produced by Northrop Grumman, with an upper stage powered by hydrogen-fueled RL10 engines built by Aerojet Rocketdyne. Strap-on solid rocket boosters would have been added to lift heavier cargo into orbit.<\/p>\n

Officials planned to launch the OmegA rocket from pad 39B at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.<\/p>\n

In the end, the Space Force went with ULA and SpaceX \u2014 its two incumbent launch contractors \u2014 to continue on as launch providers for so-called \u201cPhase 2\u201d national security missions through 2027.<\/p>\n

ULA, the 50-50 joint venture formed in 2006 by Boeing and Lockheed Martin, will get 60 percent of the military\u2019s most critical satellite launch contracts awarded through late 2024 for missions that will take off between 2022 and late 2027, military officials announced Aug. 7. SpaceX will receive 40 percent of the national security launch contracts over the same period, the Pentagon said.<\/p>\n

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Artist\u2019s concept of the OmegA rocket lifting off from pad 39B at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center. Credit: Northrop Grumman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Will Roper, assistant secretary of the U.S. Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics, said Aug. 7 that the military plans to wind down rocket development contracts with Northrop Grumman and Blue Origin.<\/p>\n

Blue Origin said it will continue developing its huge privately-funded New Glenn rocket, financed by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos. But Northrop Grumman\u2019s OmegA rocket was left without an anchor customer, and the publicly-traded company decided to terminate the program.<\/p>\n

Northrop Grumman designed the OmegA launch vehicle to be profitable with just a handful of launches per year, with an emphasis on capabilities aimed at the U.S. military\u2019s requirements.<\/p>\n

In recent months, construction crews started assembling a tower on a mobile launch platform for the OmegA rocket at the Kennedy Space Center. Charlie Precourt, vice president of propulsion systems at Northrop Grumman, said in an interview in June that qualification test-firings of the OmegA rocket\u2019s solid-fueled stages were completed, and engineers were gearing up for a test-firing of the launcher\u2019s hydrogen-fueled upper stage before the end of this year.<\/p>\n

Precourt said in June that the OmegA rocket was on schedule to be ready for its first test launch from pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in mid-2021. But that assumed Northrop Grumman would win a Phase 2 award from the Pentagon.<\/p>\n

The mobile launch platform being modified for the OmegA rocket was originally used for launches of NASA\u2019s of Apollo missions, including the Apollo 11 lunar landing flight. It was later outfitted for space shuttle launches, and was the platform from which the final shuttle flight took off 2011.<\/p>\n

The umbilical tower being built on the platform, which was provided to Northrop Grumman through an agreement with NASA, will be disassembled at the Kennedy Space Center over the coming months. Northrop Grumman will also clear OmegA equipment  from a high bay inside KSC\u2019s cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building that would have been used to stack OmegA rocket stages.<\/p>\n

With the OmegA program canceled, pad 39B at Kennedy will be solely used by NASA\u2019s Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket, at least for the foreseeable future. The SLS is scheduled for its first test launch in late 2021.<\/p>\n

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Photo of the OmegA umbilical tower under construction on the Apollo- and shuttle-era mobile launch platform at the Kennedy Space Center. Credit: Northrop Grumman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a press conference Sept. 2 after a test-firing of a SLS solid rocket booster, Precourt declined to discuss the future of the OmegA program.<\/p>\n

But he said Northrop Grumman will \u201cleverage\u201d advancements made during the OmegA rocket\u2019s development in future SLS booster designs.<\/p>\n

The OmegA rocket was being developed at the same Northrop Grumman facility in Utah that is home to SLS booster fabrication, along with production of solid rocket motors for ULA\u2019s Vulcan rocket and the military\u2019s nuclear missile arsenal.<\/p>\n

Precourt identified manufacturing efficiencies using robotic tools as an example of process improvements introduced on the OmegA program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve leveraging OmegA in this program already,\u201d Precourt said, referring to the Space Launch System. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be leveraged in a number of other programs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tiller agreed, adding that manufacturing techniques pioneered by the OmegA program will be repurposed for future upgrades to SLS boosters.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom our standpoint, the OmegA work was extremely beneficial to us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Artist\u2019s illustration of the OmegA rocket. Credit: Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman says it will not continue development of the OmegA rocket after the U.S. Space Force last month picked United Launch Alliance and SpaceX as the military\u2019s two top launch contractors over the next seven years. A company spokesperson said Sept. 9 that Northrop Grumman […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[864,428,25,2079,257,554,1228,2080],"class_list":["post-12225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-aerojet-rocketdyne","tag-kennedy-space-center","tag-launch","tag-launch-pad-39b","tag-military-space","tag-northrop-grumman","tag-nssl","tag-omega"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12225"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12225\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}