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For SLS, two well documented, and visible changes have been made to the boosters, which are technically called Five Segment Reusable Solid Rocket Motor (RSRMV): the addition of a fifth propellant segment and the removal of all recovery and reuse hardware. The added fifth segment will produce 20% greater average thrust and 24% greater total impulse over the Shuttle-era design and will marginally increase the overall burn time of the five-segment SRBs to approximately 2 minutes 12 seconds, ten seconds longer than Shuttle. The new segment will increase the overall thrust each booster is capable of producing, with each five-segment...

Orbital ATK’s proposed rocket to answer the U.S. Air Force’s desire for two families of satellite launchers with U.S.-made propulsion systems will be named OmegA, and the company has selected the cryogenic Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10 engine to power the vehicle’s upper stage, officials announced this week. The OmegA rocket could launch for the first time in 2021, but Orbital ATK is competing against several aerospace companies for a pot of Air Force funding the military is expected to award this summer. Blue Origin, SpaceX and United Launch Alliance are expected to compete for the government support, and then Air Force...

A cargo resupply mission scheduled to launch to the International Space Station this morning (Nov. 11) was aborted at the last minute due to aircraft flying in the restricted airspace over the launch site at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility here in Wallops Island, Virginia. Orbital ATK's Antares rocket was one minute away from liftoff when flight controllers abruptly aborted the launch at 7:36 a.m. EST (1236 GMT), when the aircraft entered the restricted area.  With the five-minute launch window closed for the day, Orbital ATK rescheduled the Antares launch for no earlier than 7:14 a.m. EST (1214 GMT) on Sunday...

Falls Church-based Northrop said it would pay $7.8 billion in cash, while assuming $1.4 billion in debt. ... Northrop is one of the Pentagon’s leading suppliers, and is developing its B-21 stealth bomber. Orbital ATK, an aerospace manufacturer based in Dulles, holds a contract with NASA to resupply the International Space Station. It also builds the motors for several missile systems, as well as commercial and national security satellites. The acquisition would mark a bold move for Northrop that would establish the new venture as a fourth business sector. It comes as the company was seeking to bolster its space...

The colossal Stratolaunch carrier plane rolled out of its hangar at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California, today (May 31) to undergo fueling tests. It's the first public look at the full craft —which is designed to launch rockets into orbit from the sky — since construction began. "We're excited to announce that Stratolaunch aircraft has reached a major milestone in its journey toward providing convenient, reliable, and routine access to low-Earth orbit," Stratolaunch Systems Corp. CEO Jean Floyd said in a statement. "This marks the completion of the initial aircraft-construction phase and the beginning of the...

An interesting concept for America's nuclear deterrent recently emerged on the Internet. A former employee for a US defense contractor describes an idea to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles from midair…using a civilian jetliner. The idea was ultimately shelved, but is reminiscent of a current DoD program for conventional weapons. According to the post on The Unwanted Blog the author, was an employee for Orbital ATK, a San Jose-based defense contractor specializing in rockets and missiles. The author came across some Powerpoint presentations of a concept developed with another defense contractor, BAE, for turning a 747 into a nuclear missile carrier....

NASA will test-fire a booster for the world's most powerful rocket Tuesday morning (June 28), and you can watch the explosive action live online. A solid rocket booster for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket — which the agency is developing to blast astronauts toward Mars and other deep-space destinations — will fire for 2 minutes Tuesday at a facility in Utah, beginning at 10:05 a.m. EDT (1405 GMT). You can watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV; coverage starts at 9:30 a.m. EDT (1330 GMT). NASA will hold a press conference at 11 a.m. EDT (1500...

Assembly and testing of a significantly upgraded version of Orbital ATK's commercially developed Antares rocket has kicked into high gear and is on target for rebirth - as the clock ticks down towards its "Return to Flight" by approximately mid-2016 from a launch pad at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) in Virginia, company managers told Universe Today during a recent up close media visit to see the actual flight hardware. Mission integration operations are in full swing right now as technicians were actively processing Antares hardware during my visit to Orbital ATK’s Horizontal Integration Facility (HIF) at NASA's Wallops Flight...

The booster known as qualification motor, QM-1, is the largest solid rocket motor ever built and will be ignited on March 11 for a full duration static fire test by prime contractor Orbital ATK at the newly merged firms test facility in Promontory, Utah. Ignition of the horizontally mounted motor is planned for 11:30 a.m. EDT (9:30 a.m. MDT) on Wednesday, March 11 on the T-97 test stand. The test will be broadcast live on NASA TV. ... The new 5-segment booster is directly derived from the 4-segment booster used during NASA’s three decade long Space Shuttle program. One segment...

ARLINGTON, Va., Dec. 4, 2013 -- /PRNewswire/ -- ATK (NYSE: ATK), a leader in weaponized, special-mission aircraft, announced it has completed the first flight test for the Kingdom of Jordan's two CASA-235 light gunship aircraft. ATK was awarded a contract by King Abdullah II Design and Development Bureau (KADDB) of the Kingdom of Jordan to modify two of the country's CASA-235 transport aircraft into highly-capable and cost-effective special mission aircraft. With modifications and ground testing complete, ATK began the flight test program to validate the installed weapons and gun system. Upon successful completion of the test program, the aircraft will...

The Intel Hub alerts us to a shocking new defense contract entered by the Department of Homeland Security to secure a massive amount of ammunition, with the option for infinite supply, infinite delivery. ATK Awarded Contract to Supply 450 Million Rounds of .40 Caliber Ammunition to the Department of Homeland Security ATK has secured a major Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity deal to supply up to 450 million rounds of .40 caliber ammunition to the Department of Homeland Security. The 1 year contract with four option years comes at a time when many Americans believe that DHS, along with certain aspects of...

The defense and aerospace contractor ATK, Alliant Techsystems, based in Eden Prairie, announced today that it will relocate its corporate headquarters Oct. 1 to Arlington, Va., where the company will expand its existing office space. The company will continue to maintain a strong presence in Minnesota, including approximately 210 Minnesota-based corporate employees. In total, ATK employs approximately 2700 people in Minnesota. ATK currently employs approximately 3,500 people in the Mid-Atlantic region, where it operates facilities in Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia

ATK eyes modified gunship market By Siva Govindasamy ATK, a US armaments and missile components firm, plans to move into the business of modifying military aircraft into cost-effective gunships after signing a contract with Jordan. The company is working with Jordan's King Abdullah II Design and Development Bureau (KADDB) to modify two of the country's Airbus Military CN-235-series transports and deliver them by late spring 2013. Work will be performed at KADDB's facilities in Amman, Jordan and ATK facilities in the USA. The company will install and integrate electro-optical targeting systems, a laser designator, aircraft self-protection equipment, and an armaments...

Jordan’s KADDB Awards Contract to ATK to Modify Two CASA-235 Transport Aircraft ATK Introduces New Light Gunship Special Mission Aircraft Capabilities Package 20:17 GMT, February 20, 2011 Abu Dhabi | ATK announced it has received a contract from the King Abdullah II Design and Development Bureau (KADDB) of the Kingdom of Jordan to modify two of the country’s CASA-235 transport aircraft into highly-capable and cost-effective special mission aircraft, according to the combined modification designs of both KADDB and ATK. Subject to U.S. government export licensing approval, the modified aircraft are expected to be delivered by the late spring of 2013....

PHOTOs: Sizzler approximator unveiled By Stephen Trimble on January 10, 2011 Photos of the first ATK-built ZGQM-173A multi-stage supersonic target (MSST) have now appeared on the web. The US Navy is developing MSST to simulate the flight profile of Russia's Novator 3M-54 Klub, which is also named the SS-N-27 Sizzler by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). If it's pointed at you, the Klub is a hard missile to beat. It's designed to skim over wave-tops subsonically, boost to near-hypersonic speeds in a brief climb, dive back to the surface and then weave its way toward the intended target --...

NASA and aerospace company ATK Aerospace Systems successfully tested Tuesday the most powerful solid-fuel rocket engine ever, even though its future in the space program remains in doubt. A huge roar and massive flames accompanied the two-minute "static" or non-flight test of the five-segment DM-2 (Demonstration Motor 2) rocket booster in the western desert state of Utah. The DM-2 was designed as the first stage of the Ares I rocket to provide the lift-off thrust for the next generation of Orion spacecraft, which NASA hoped would return astronauts to the moon by 2020. US President Barack Obama has said he...

Embracing her strong pro-gun stance, Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann fired off a few rounds from an M4 carbine Thursday morning, according to employees of a local ammunition manufacturer in her district. The pro-Second Amendment conservative and rising Tea Party movement icon made the final public campaign stop of her two-day bus tour at Federal Ammunition ATK in Anoka, Minnesota. Photography and videotaping were not allowed. Employees of ATK who were in attendance told CNN about the visit before the campaign ushered them away saying details for the press would be provided by the campaign. Two employees said Bachmann fired off...

Just over a year ago, we discussed an alarming new policy, implemented by the Department of Defense, whereby once fired small arms cartridge brass would be destroyed, rather than sold to ammunition manufacurers. I call that policy "alarming," because that's what it was, on more than one level. 1. With this enormous source of cheap cartridge brass now cut off, ammunition prices--already very high, due to other factors--would go still higher, making exercise of gun rights much more difficult. 2. Shooters among the private citizenry were not alone in being adversely affected--law enforcement agencies, already scrambling to obtain enough ammunition...

MINNEAPOLIS, MN --(AmmoLand.com)- ATK is a strong supporter of our armed forces, the shooting sports industry, second amendment rights and all of our customers who choose to reload ammunition. In fact, ATK is a leader in the reloading market. The dated brochure and presentation have caused confusion in the marketplace and do not reflect the views of our company and will be immediately withdrawn. As a service to our military customers, we routinely handle demil operations for various munitions and respond to requests from military installations for reclamation and recycling of military items. Each contract is awarded through the military...

On the 40th anniversary of the successful U.S. mission to the moon, proud celebrations took place to recognize the accomplishments by the National Aeronautics & Space Administration. There was even a well-timed space mission, with NASA's Space Shuttle blasting off to carry additional gear to the International Space Station, the research facility that orbits 220 miles above the Earth's surface. One option under serious consideration is whether NASA should tap the private sector more actively. Since its founding, the agency has done the heavy lifting in space exploration largely by itself—conceiving of missions, designing rockets, and executing flights. Companies such...