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The companies will "complete an accelerated concept design" of a glide phase interceptor capable of tracking and targeting hypersonic missiles as they travel toward their target. The interceptors will be designed to integrate with the Pentagon’s existing Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system. Further details on the contract were not made public, but Reuters reported the companies received separate contracts with a total value of $60 million. "Multiple awards allow us to execute a risk reduction phase to explore industry concepts and maximize the benefits of a competitive environment to demonstrate the most effective and reliable Glide Phase Interceptor for regional...

Federal, aerospace contractors of Central Florida are planning to protest Monday against the federal workers COVID-19 vaccine mandate, according to a report by Fox 35. In September, President Joe Biden announced new vaccine requirements for federal workers, mandating employers with more than 100 workers to require their employees to get vaccinated or tested weekly for COVID-19. Biden also signed an executive order requiring members of the executive branch and contractors working with the federal government to receive the vaccine, allowing no option to test out. The mandate takes hold Dec. 8 but Central Florida aerospace employees of Northrop Grumman don’t...

The United States tested an advanced hypersonic missile system last week that will “offer next generation capability” to the US military, the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) said on Monday. The test flight comes just a few months after Russia tested a similar missile. The US missile system, called a “Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept” (HAWC), was developed by the aerospace and defense giants Raytheon Technologies and Northrop Grumman. During the test, which was carried out in partnership with DARPA and the US Air Force last week, the missile was released from under the wing of an aircraft, and...

After a 36 hour phasing profile, the S.S. Ellison Onizuka cargo ship, part of Northrop Grumman’s NG-16 mission, has arrived at the International Space Station (ISS). Safely in the grip of Canadarm2, Cygnus was attached to the nadir port of the Unity (Node-1) module for the multi-month cargo delivery and removal process. Delivering a total of 3,723 kg of crew supplies, unpressurized cargo, science experiments, spacewalk equipment, station hardware, and computer equipment, the NG-16 mission is the fifth of six guaranteed flights to the station under the CRS2.. While only one flight, remains per the original CRS2 guarantee, NASA has...

NASA and Northrop Grumman of Dulles, Virginia, have finalized a contract to develop the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) for Gateway, which will be a critical way station and outpost in orbit around the Moon as part of NASA’s Artemis program. NASA and its commercial and international partners are building Gateway to support science investigations and enable surface landings at the Moon, which will help prepare astronauts for future missions to Mars. The firm, fixed-price contract is valued at $935 million. Under the contract, Northrop Grumman will be responsible for attaching and testing the integrated HALO with the Power and...

The company used their solid propellant Minotaur I rocket to place the payloads into a low Earth orbit with a liftoff from Pad-0B at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia occurring on Tuesday, June 15 at 13:35 UTC (09:35 EDT). Due to the classified nature of the launch, nothing is publicly known about the payloads. However, the mass must be less than 580 kg, which is the max payload capacity of the Minotaur I. In keeping with NRO tradition, the mission patch consists of a whimsical piece of artwork, a mission motto, and some clues as to the...

A Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket launched the U.S. Space Force’s Tactically Responsive Launch-2 (TacRL-2) mission June 13 at 1:11 a.m. Pacific from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The payload was successfully deployed its intended orbit, a Space Force spokesman confirmed on Sunday. Pegasus is an air-launched rocket deployed from a Stargazer L-1011 aircraft. Shortly after its release from Stargazer, at approximately 40,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean, Pegasus ignited its first stage and flew TacRL-2 to a sun-synchronous low-Earth orbit. Launch vehicle assembly, integration and testing were completed within four months of contract award, said Lt. Col. Ryan Rose,...

An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile launches during an operational test at 1:13 a.m. Pacific Time Oct. 2, 2019, at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman a $13.3 billion contract to engineer and manufacture its next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile. (Air Force Photo by Staff Sgt. J.T. Armstrong) The U.S. Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman a $13.3 billion contract for the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase of the service's next-generation intercontinental ballistic missiles to replace the aging Minuteman III ICBMs. The service on Tuesday said the contract for the Ground Based...

With the first two major elements of NASA’s Lunar Gateway under contract and development, Northrop Grumman has outlined their plans for the overall Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) module, which will serve as the primary habitation and nexus for the lunar station. HALO will now launch in a fully integrated configuration with Maxar’s Power and Propulsion Element — a change that has brought about alterations to HALO. The duo will launch aboard a yet-to-be-officially confirmed rocket from the Florida spaceport in 2023. The cargo items now excluded from launching on HALO will have to be delivered separately on a future...

A team of Chinese doctors sent to North Korea to help determine the status of ruler Kim Jong-un's health according to the Reuters News Agency. Also a report by Hong Kong Satellite Television stating that Kim was dead..... A police crackdown in Vienna, Austria today as hundreds protested against coronavirus house arrest restrictions.... You Tube censorship with word that "medically unsubstantiated" content will be banned..... President Trump signing the latest big spending bill..... Its beyond the statute of limitations, but the Metropolitan Police in Washington DC are investigating the sexual assault allegation of Tara Reade agains former Vice-President and presumptive...

If you’re not in the U.S. mid-Atlantic region, you can also watch live coverage of the Cygnus launch on NASA TV and the agency’s website. TV coverage begins Sunday at 22:00 UTC (5 p.m. EST). This will be Northrop Grumman’s 13th commercial resupply mission to ISS using its Cygnus cargo spacecraft. The spacecraft will be loaded with approximately 8,000 pounds (3,600 kg) of research, crew supplies, and hardware. The Cygnus spacecraft will arrive at the space station on Tuesday, February 11. ISS astronauts will capture Cygnus with the station’s robotic arm and install the spacecraft. Cygnus is scheduled to stay...

Defense contractor Northrop Grumman has begun moving secret cargo through a Southern California marina this weekend. The large object will be taken from a Northrop Grumman facility in Redondo Beach to a barge for shipment to San Diego. Northrop Grumman officials cited national security concerns in declining to provide information about the object. The company agreed on Oct. 15 to pay the city $25,000 for a licensing agreement to use the marina and for any costs the city incurs.

DES MOINES, Iowa – On September 19, 2019, a federal grand jury returned an Indictment charging defendants, Jessica Rae Reznicek and Ruby Katherine Montoya, with one count of conspiracy to damage an energy facility, four counts of use of fire in the commission of a felony, and four counts of malicious use of fire, announced United States Attorney Marc Krickbaum. Montoya was recently arrested in the District of Arizona and detained pending court proceedings to determine her appearance in the Southern District of Iowa. Reznicek appeared in Des Moines on October 1, 2019 and was conditionally released pending trial. Trial...

Early in September, international news was awash with the claim that 87 elephants had been “killed by poachers” in Botswana. The story originated from the NGO Elephants Without Borders, which received massive publicity – and presumably donations – as a result. Even the beleaguered UK Prime Minister tweeted the story, while a petition calling for wildlife guards to be re-armed surpassed 150,000 signatures. I know a little of Botswana. A few years ago, I was declared “public enemy number one”, threatened by a government spokesman on television, and banned from the country. This was because Survival International was instrumental in...

Northrop Grumman and Raytheon have revealed that they have been working together on a scramjet-powered hypersonic cruise missile, which uses an engine that is entirely 3D-printed. Their design is competing against one from Lockheed Martin under the Defense Advanced Research Project's Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept program, or HAWC. The two companies publicly announced their partnership at the 2019 Paris Air Show on June 18, 2019, but they have been working together secretly for years on HAWC, according to Aviation Week. DARPA began the HAWC program in 2014, in cooperation with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). "We have a...

Northrop Grumman’s first big test of its future OmegA rocket seems to have ended in a small explosion. Today, the company fired up the main engine on the rocket during a ground test in Utah. Toward the end of the test, part of the vehicle’s engine burst apart, sending pieces of hardware flying. Today’s test is what is known as a static fire, when the engine of a rocket is ignited while the vehicle is held firmly to the ground. Northrop Grumman was conducting the very first static fire test of the OmegA’s first stage — the main body of...

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...

Hypersonic technology -- weapons and interceptors able to travel at least five times the speed of sound -- are a top Pentagon priority and an area where China and Russia are perceived to be ahead of U.S. military efforts. The Defense Department has committed to spend aggressively to catch up. Based on initial contract awards, it's becoming clear that Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) is outpacing the competition in the battle to win the lion's share of those awards. Lockheed Martin earlier this month was awarded a $480 million contract to develop a hypersonic air-launched, rapid response weapon (ARRW). The award could...

“Taken together – 120 combat-coded bombers, 20 trainers, and 24 planes for backup and attrition planning purposes – the minimum buy would be 164 aircraft." Why 100 Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider Stealth Bombers Might Not Be Enough Northrop Grumman’s B-21 Raider stealth bomber is rapidly approaching its critical design review (CDR), when a Pentagon review team will determine if the new aircraft is meeting the technical requirements set forth in its requirements documents. If the design passes its CDR, the B-21 team will be cleared to build, integrate and test the aircraft before its next hurdle: the production readiness review....

In his address made on March 3rd, 2018 at the Antelope Valley Board of Trade and Business Outlook Conference, which was covered closely by the Antelope Valley Press, General Schaefer made the B-21's future basing crystal clear once and for all: "For the first time ever, I would like to publicly announce that the B-21 will be tested at Edwards Air Force Base... Edwards has been the home of bomber test and now we also can publicly release that the B-21 is coming to Edwards and we will be testing it here in the near future." Shaefer went on to...