Northrop Grumman Delivers Three GEM 63 Rocket Motors for United Launch Alliance

• Northrop Grumman Delivers Three GEM 63 Rocket Motors for United Launch Alliance by jacqmans on 21 Jul, 2020 14:00
• Northrop Grumman Delivers Three GEM 63 Rocket Motors for United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V
  
  News Release
   July 21, 2020
  
  MAGNA, Utah – July 21, 2020 – Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) has delivered three of its 63-inch-diameter Graphite Epoxy Motors (GEM 63) for United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Atlas V rocket. The three motors were shipped from the Northrop Grumman facility in Magna to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, and will be used as strap-on boosters to augment thrust on Atlas V.
  
  Northrop Grumman delivered its GEM 63 rocket motors from Magna, Utah to Florida for United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V.
  The GEM 63 rocket motors were developed under a cooperative agreement with ULA for the Atlas V vehicle. Each motor contributes a maximum thrust of 373,000 pounds to the launch with up to five GEM 63 motors being able to support a single Atlas V launch.
  
  “Designing a drop-in solution for an existing vehicle is no easy feat,” said Charlie Precourt, vice president, propulsion systems, Northrop Grumman. “As ULA’s largest legacy supplier, we have been providing rocket propulsion to ULA and its heritage companies since 1964 and we are pleased to continue our partnership with this new generation motor.”
  
  A series of motor ground tests beginning in September 2018 satisfied requirements for certification by the United States Air Force and ULA. The first flight of Atlas V that will utilize three GEM 63 rocket motors is expected to launch later this year.
  
  The GEM family of strap-on motors was developed starting in the early 1980s with the GEM 40, supporting 132 Delta II launches. The company also developed the GEM 46, which used 54 motors to support six successful missions of the Delta II Heavy. Northrop Grumman later developed the GEM 60, which retired with 100 percent success in August 2019 with 86 motors flown over 26 Delta IV launches.
  
  Northrop Grumman is once again evolving the GEM family with the development of the GEM 63XL variation to support ULA’s Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle.
  

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• #1 by tmoesser on 22 Jul, 2020 19:45
• Strictly speaking, this press release belongs in the ULA section, specifically the Atlas V 531 - NROL-101 flight.  The motors shipped are specific to that flight later this year, and the GEM 63 motor design itself is a drop-in replacement for the AJ-60A currently flying on Atlas V.  ULA vehicle, not NGIS / Orbital ATK.
  
  The final paragraph also mentions the GEM 63XL derivative also in development for Vulcan, again ULA, which should have its first static test in the next month.
  
  What is not mentioned is that another derivative, the GEM 63XLT, is also development to help boost OmegA, which is an NGIS vehicle.  That would be bad form and impolite to talk up your new product (unseating an incumbent) for a commercial customer while also mentioning that you have a competing vehicle also in development, which has an outside chance of unseating them as an incumbent.
  
  So cross-post at best, but primarily this belongs in a ULA discussion.
  
  Having said that, I will add: Go Atlas! Go Vulcan! Go OmegA!