WASHINGTON — Northrop Grumman test-fired a brand new solid rocket motor that marks the start of an annual test campaign to reveal advanced technologies that may very well be incorporated into space and defense programs.
The corporate conducted a static fire of the motor Dec. 7 at its Promontory, Utah, facility. The motor fired for about half a minute within the test, which Northrop declared to be a hit.
The test is the primary of a brand new company initiative called Solid Motor Annual Rocket Technology Demonstrator, or SMART Demo. The goal of this system is to give you the option to rapidly develop and reveal recent technologies that may support a variety of programs.
“In lower than one 12 months, this team designed, developed and are qualifying these recent technologies,” Wendy Williams, vp of propulsion systems at Northrop Grumman, in a call with reporters shortly before the test.
The motor incorporates several recent technologies, explained Ben Case, principal investigator for SMART Demo at Northrop. They include a brand new low-cost propellant capable of operate across a wide selection of temperatures in addition to several components that were additively manufactured, comparable to a titanium structure within the nozzle. Using additive manufacturing, he said, can reduce lead times for those components by as much as 75%.
Northrop also used the test to qualify materials within the nozzle from alternative suppliers. “These alternate suppliers stand to reinforce our supply chain,” he said, “and that can help to satisfy the demand of our growing business.”
That growing business includes ramping up production of the GEM 63XL solid rocket motor that will likely be utilized by United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket. Northrop also produces the massive solid rocket motors for NASA’s Space Launch System and is starting work with NASA on the Booster Obsolescence and Life Extension (BOLE) program to develop recent solid rocket boosters for SLS starting with Artemis 9 within the 2030s.
Williams noted the corporate is working on nine recent solid rocket motors for five programs concurrently that features each space launch applications in addition to defense efforts comparable to hypersonics, missile defense and the Sentinel ICBM. The corporate is constructing 11 recent buildings and modifying one other 16 at its Utah facilities to accommodate “significantly” increased motor production rates.
![](https://i0.wp.com/spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/smartdemo-firing.jpg?resize=780%2C439&ssl=1)
The technologies demonstrated within the SMART Demo test may very well be incorporated into those programs, although company officials didn’t give a firm timeline for doing so. “All of our development programs are in several stages,” Williams said. “We’re absolutely leveraging these technologies and folding those in.”
“We have now interest from program managers and chief engineers across multiple programs,” said Case of the SMART Demo technologies.
Aaron Shephard, internal research and development manager for propulsion systems at Northrop Grumman, noted the corporate has long developed recent technologies for solid rocket motors. “What’s really recent here is the way in which we’re doing SMART Demo,” he said. It provides what he described as a “unique and powerful bridge” to mature recent technologies over the “valley of death” that stymies development due to an absence of opportunities to qualify them.
This test is the beginning of what Northrop plans to be an annual series of demonstrations of solid rocket motor technologies. This test was internally funded, Case said, but future iterations could involve partnerships with government agencies to check technologies of interest to them.
Northrop is working to discover the technologies it wants to include into next 12 months’s Smart DEMO effort, which will likely be based partially on the info from this test in addition to the experience in the event leading as much as the test. “You’ll see some repeat of those technologies but in a more advanced state,” he said, together with recent ones.
The motor itself could evolve right into a product, Shephard said. “Our hope is that, as our configuration can adapt and alter 12 months in and 12 months out, that’s a pretty offer to industry,” he said. “Here’s a vehicle with a given performance, given technology, that if, there’s interest, could roll right into a real program.”