Northrop Grumman shows SpaceX doesn't have a monopoly on explosions

NASA's future Artemis booster sputters during test

video Old Space has shown itself to be just as adept at explosive malfunctions as New Space, with Northrop Grumman encountering an anomaly during a static fire test of an updated solid rocket booster design.

The test was the first demonstration test fire of NASA's Booster Obsolescence and Life Extension (BOLE) solid rocket booster, a five-segment booster intended for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) once the US space agency exhausts its remaining inventory of parts from the Space Shuttle era.

The booster was secured to the ground at the Utah test site and fired for slightly more than two minutes. All went well for the first 100 seconds or so, until it appeared that the rocket's nozzle had failed, accompanied by an exclamation of "whoa!" and a gasp on the commentary audio. It happens at about 22:15 in the video below:

Youtube Video

The rocket continued firing – once a solid rocket booster is lit, stopping it is challenging – but it was clear there had been a significant anomaly at the rear.

A Northrop Grumman spokesperson told The Register: "We had a good test, pushing the boundaries of large solid rocket motor design to meet rigorous performance requirements. While the motor appeared to perform well through the most harsh environments of the test, we observed an apparent hardware anomaly near the end of the two-plus minute burn.

"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 uses."

The updated design uses a new propellant formulation and enhanced components. The expectation is that performance will be increased by more than 10 percent, which, according to Northrop Grumman, would mean another five metric tons of payload could be transported to lunar orbit.

That is, assuming the update is ultimately adopted. NASA had planned to use up its existing stock of Shuttle-era solid rocket parts before moving to the BOLE design with Artemis 9 sometime in the 2030s. The solid rocket boosters from the Space Shuttle era were reusable, but are expended during an SLS launch.

However, the chances of NASA getting as far as Artemis 9 are looking increasingly uncertain at the moment. A budget proposal that would result in the SLS being cancelled after Artemis 3 is currently under scrutiny, and changes suggested by lawmakers would only restore funding as far as Artemis 5.

While the BOLE anomaly is not on the same scale as SpaceX's recent Starship explosion, it highlights that the New Space companies, like SpaceX, don't have the explosion market to themselves. Old Space companies, like Northrop Grumman, can also blow up stuff when they put their minds to it. ®