Northrop Grumman plans to give its Antares rocket an all-American upgrade and taps Firefly Aerospace to accomplish its mission. The two American space companies will be working together to build a new first stage for the Antares rocket, while also developing a new medium-lift booster for future launches.
According to Space.com, the move means replacing the current rocket built in Ukraine and powered using Russian engines. It is said that the new one is a more powerful version that can carry heavier payloads.
Northrop Grumman Building an All-American Rocket Through Firefly Aerospace
Choosing an American company means Northrop Grumman is removing its dependency on Ukraine and Russia for building its Antares rocket. Northrop Grumman said in a statement that their collaboration with Firefly Aerospace will enable them to develop a fully domestic version of their Antares rocket, which will be called Antares 330, for the Cygnus commercial resupply services for the International Space Station (ISS).
The Antares first stage was usually made in Ukraine's Yuzhnoye State Design Office and Yuzhmash Machine Building plant and is powered by the RD-181 engines from Russia. The current conflict between the two countries has affected the supply of both components.
More so, Russia has stopped selling rocket engines to the US after the latter and other countries issued sanctions on the former for invading Ukraine.
Northrop Grumman has been using Russian engines since the 1960s using the N-1moon rocket and switched to the RD-181 engines after the intense Antares rocket explosion in 2014.
The company said they have enough engines and stages for two Antares rockets, which are scheduled to launch this October and in 2023. Northrop Grumman will be buying three SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets to fly Cygnus until the Antares 330 is ready.
What's New With Antares 330?
SpaceNews reported that the Antares 330 rocket could be ready by 2024 and will feature the first stage built by Firefly Aerospace and will be powered by seven of its Miranda engines. The rocket's first stage will still use Northrop's Castor 30XL solid-fuel motor.
With the upgrades of the new Antares rocket, Northrop said it would be able to launch up to 23,000 pounds (10,500 kilograms) of payloads to the space station. It is a significant increase from its current capacity of 17,800 pounds (8,100 kilograms).
As of now, Northrop Grumman and Firefly Aerospace have not released financial details with their agreement for the new rocket and on the new medium-lift rocket they will be building, Beta.
The choice to shift to Firefly Aerospace comes with a significant risk after the company's failed launch of its Alpha rocket, The Register reported. Beta will be the second launch attempt that is planned for this month. The rocket is beefier than Alpha and uses seven Miranda engines on its first stage and one Virande engine in the upper stage to send it to the low-Earth orbit.
Northrop Grumman is just one of the many commercial companies that NASA chose to deliver its resupply cargo to the space station, along with SpaceX, Sierra Nevada Space Systems, and others. The company has been sending resupply cargo to the ISS for almost 10 years now since 2013.
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