Northrop Grumman tests future Artemis booster, but suffers destructive ‘anomaly’
Northrop Grumman saw some fiery drama during a test of a more powerful version of the solid rocket booster that would be used if NASA’s Artemis program ever gets to its ninth launch using the beleaguered Space Launch System rocket.
During a Thursday live stream by NASA of a static fire of the 156-foot-long Booster Obsolescence and Life Extension (BOLE) solid rocket motor, the end nozzle blew apart, sending debris flying across the camera followed by a black plume of smoke rising up from Northrop’s Promontory, Utah test site.
“Whoa,” said one of the test controllers during the stream, just after the 100-second mark of the hot fire. Laying on its side, the booster was burning through the same amount of fuel that it would as if used on a launch.
Northrop Grumman officials addressed the nozzle’s demise in a press release later Thursday.
“Today’s test pushed the boundaries of large solid rocket motor design to meet rigorous performance requirements,” said Jim Kalberer, Northrop Grumman’s vice president of propulsion systems. “While the motor appeared to perform well through the most harsh environments of the test, we observed an anomaly near the end of the two-plus minute burn.”
The test is for a booster that wouldn’t fly until at least next decade, and only if NASA sticks with SLS as a rocket option for its Artemis missions.
“As a new design, and the largest segmented solid rocket booster ever built, this test provides us with valuable data to iterate our design for future developments,” Kalberer said.
Under the current NASA plan, the first eight Artemis launches use an SLS rocket with boosters that produce 3.4 million pounds of thrust each. The pair, combined with the core stage, created 8.8 million pounds of thrust on the Artemis I launch in 2022, which still is the most powerful rocket to ever make it into orbit.
The BOLE version would increase thrust to 4 million pounds each, which would push SLS to near 10 million pounds of thrust on Artemis IX.
The Trump administration’s proposed budget for NASA, though, wants to kill off the use of the SLS rocket after Artemis III, although Congress is the ultimate decision-maker on what gets funded.
So until directed otherwise, contractors continue to work on future versions of the SLS. Northrop Grumman’s solid rocket boosters for Artemis are enhanced versions of similar boosters used during the Space Shuttle Program.
The BOLE design is a solution to components no longer in production. The update uses a carbon fiber composite case and a different propellant formula among other features.
The goal is a 10% increase in booster performance over the boosters used on Artemis I. That would equate to SLS being able to carry another 11,000 pounds of payload to lunar orbit.
The nozzle issue was reminiscent of another Northrop Grumman booster problem seen in 2024.
Related Articles
SpaceX Crew Dragon with 4 Axiom Space astronauts docks with space station
Kennedy Space Center goes retro for Y2K after-hours event
SpaceX launches historic mission to space station on new Crew Dragon dubbed ‘Grace’
Space Coast launch schedule
With SLS rocket future uncertain, L3Harris still cranking out engines
That’s when a nozzle flew off of one of the boosters used on the United Launch Alliance Vulcan Certification-2 mission from Cape Canaveral. That incident contributed to a delay in the Space Force giving ULA the OK to fly national security missions.
Northrop Grumman officials, though, said the ULA and Artemis boosters are not directly related.
“It is an entirely separate product,” said Mark Pond, senior director of NASA programs for Northrop Grumman’s propulsion systems during an Artemis II media day last December at Kennedy Space Center.
Artemis II is slated to launch no later than April 2026 on what would be the first crewed mission sending four astronauts on a trip around the moon, but not landing on it.
“From a concern standpoint, we’ve met all of our requirements, we’ve done all of our testing, we’ve met all of our acceptance tests and our delivery requirements, and for that reason, we are not concerned from an Artemis II perspective,” he said.
