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Acquiring space launch company Orbital ATK in an all-cash $7.8 billion merger, Northrop took possession of Orbital's Minotaur and Antares medium-lift rocket families. It acquired Orbital's ongoing project to build a new "OmegA" class heavy lift rocket as well, with which to compete against the likes of United Launch Alliance and SpaceX for large commercial and military satellite launches. Northrop Grumman also inherited Orbital's ongoing NASA contract to resupply crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS) with needed consumables under the agency's CRS-1 and CRS-2 "Commercial Resupply Services" contracts -- missions valued at as much as $14 billion across the...

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday announced it has cleared Northrop Grumman's $7.8 billion purchase of defense and space contractor Orbital ATK. Orbital ATK will become Northrop Grumman's fourth business sector, named Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems. The other three are Aerospace Systems, Mission Systems and Technology Services. With the addition, Northrop Grumman's sales for 2018 should reach $30 billion. Blake Larson will serve as corporate vice president and president of Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems. As a condition for the approval of the merger, the company will have to supply solid rocket motors "on a non-discriminatory basis under specified circumstances,"...

An Orbital ATK Antares rocket will launch a commercial Cygnus cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station from Virginia's Eastern Shore before dawn on Monday, and the launch could be visible to potentially millions of spectators along the U.S. East Coast. The Antares rocket is scheduled to launch at 4:39 a.m. EDT (0839 GMT) on Monday (May 21) and should be highly visible across the East Coast of the United States, weather permitting. The mission, called OA-9, will launch from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia to deliver more than 3 tons of supplies to...

For years now, the Pentagon has been in the market for new heavy-lift launch vehicles – rockets that can lift between 44,000 to 110,000 pounds. Currently, the only market options available are either too costly or too reliant on Russian-made parts.To that end, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced that he will begin devoting most of his company’s efforts on developing the “BFR” – short for Big F-ing Rocket – which will allegedly be so huge and powerful that it will make the company’s previous rocket lines outdated in just a few short years. Musk stated at the South by Southwest...

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...

March 9 (UPI) -- Orbital ATK has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Air Force for services in support of aircraft for the Afghanistan Air Force. The deal, announced Thursday by the Department of Defense, is valued at more than $86.4 million under the terms of a firm-fixed-price, undefinitized contract. The agreement between the U.S. Air Force and Orbital ATK will provide the Afghan Air Force with an AC-208 Eliminator, an armed intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft. The aircraft is equipped with AGM-114 HELLFIRE missile payloads. Work on the contract will occur in Fort Worth, Texas, and is expected...

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...

Orbital ATK (NYSE: OA), a global leader in aerospace and defense technologies, announced it is prepared to launch the company’s air-launched Pegasus rocket aboard its Stargazer L-1011 airplane from Cape Canaveral on Monday, December 12 at approximately 8:24 a.m. EST. Pegasus will be carrying NASA’s Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) to study the inner core of tropical cyclones. The data provided will help scientists and meteorologists better understand and predict the path of a hurricane.

NASA has selected SpaceX, Orbital ATK and Sierra Nevada Corp. to fly cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) starting in 2019, the agency announced today (Jan 14). Between 2019 and 2024, NASA will purchase a minimum of six uncrewed cargo missions from each of the three companies, agency officials said in a media briefing today. The space agency has the option to purchase additional re-supply missions from any of the three providers, and will likely do so, said Kirk Shireman, program manager for the ISS. SpaceX and Orbital ATK were selected as cargo providers in NASA's first round of...