Latest news with #JimKalberer
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Artemis booster explosion: NASA, Northrop Grumman investigate unexpected results during rocket test
The Brief NASA and Northrop Grumman completed an Artemis SLS rocket booster test flight in Utah. During the static fire test, there were some unexpected explosions. Space experts say this will likely not affect Artemis II, but engineers need to understand what triggered the explosions for future flights. ORLANDO, Fla. - Officials are investigating an unexpected explosion that occurred during a solid rocket booster test in Utah last week, raising questions about a key component of the Artemis moon missions. What we know NASA and Northrop Grumman completed the booster test in Promontory, Utah last week. It lasted around two minutes. Just after 100 seconds, the NASA livestream showed a few explosions on the livestream. The engineers calling out cues during the test expressed some shock during the static fire but continued with the test. The booster eventually ran out of fuel, and the test wrapped up without incident. CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX LOCAL APP This booster is proven technology that has taken astronauts to the moon since the Shuttle Era, but NASA is upgrading the boosters for further deep space missions. Space experts say that could have caused the anomaly. An investigation into what went wrong is underway. What we don't know It's unclear how long it will take teams to pinpoint what caused the explosions and if this could delay any future Artemis missions. What they're saying A space expert says it looked like the unexpected explosion happened near the nose cone of the booster. "It does appear that the fire initiated somewhere around that nozzle, so it's quite likely there was some sort of an issue there with this new configuration," said Florida Tech space professor Don Platt. Northrop Grumman released a statement acknowledging the anomaly the team is investigating. SIGN-UP FOR FOX 35'S BREAKING NEWS, DAILY NEWS NEWSLETTERS "While the motor appeared to perform well through the most harsh environments of the test, we observed an 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 developments," said Jim Kalberer, who's the vice president of propulsion systems for Northrop Grumman. The Source FOX 35's Reporter Esther Bower watched the NASA livestream where the explosion happened. She also read a statement from Northrop Grumman following the booster test. She interviewed a space expert via zoom on June 30, 2025.
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA video of moon rocket test shows something just went seriously wrong
A test of a new rocket motor for NASA's future moon missions went awry this week, with the full-size booster hurling a powerful blaze and scattering debris. Northrop Grumman, lead contractor for the booster, conducted the two-minute ground test of the solid rocket motor, which was strapped down sideways. For the first 1.5 minutes, the motor — known as NASA's Booster Obsolescence and Life Extension, or BOLE — seemed to be working fine. Seconds later, debris blew out of the nozzle and flames rippled through the long exhaust plume. The 156-foot booster kept firing through the remainder of the test, and no one was hurt. NASA's livestream, which you can watch below, caught the incident, starting at about 22 minutes and 17 seconds into the video. Engineers didn't immediately acknowledge the issue during that broadcast, apart from one controller uttering "Whoa," followed by an audible gasp. The company later confirmed a problem occurred late in the burn, though representatives didn't elaborate on what went wrong. The anomaly, which took place at a Northrop Grumman test facility in Promontory, Utah, raises questions about the hardware that could one day send astronauts into space — and potentially to Mars. "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 developments," said Jim Kalberer, Northrop Grumman's vice president of propulsion systems, in a statement. SEE ALSO: Webb telescope smashed a record with the planet it just discovered A single BOLE booster produces more than 4 million pounds of thrust. Credit: Northrop Grumman The BOLE motor is a major redesign of the ones used on NASA's Space Launch System, or SLS, the rocket built to carry astronauts to the moon under the Artemis program. It swaps out old parts with lightweight materials and new fuel, giving it more thrust and allowing the rocket to haul heavier loads. The boosters for the first eight flights of Artemis repurpose the steel booster cases and other parts from the Space Shuttle program. Beginning with Artemis IX, the SLS rocket, sometimes dubbed the mega moon rocket, is supposed to use the BOLE. The plan is for two of them to flank either side of the rocket. "In order to save cost and schedule, we implemented the Shuttle's proven heritage hardware into our design, but this is being depleted as the Artemis program progresses," said Julia Khodabandeh, NASA's deputy manager for the SLS booster element office. "It's just not practical to restart the manufacturing from that 1970s era." This was the first demonstration test of the enhanced five-segment solid rocket motor. That single booster produced more than 4 million pounds of thrust, said Dave Reynolds, NASA's SLS booster subsystems manager. "You can see from the side of the mountain up there," Reynolds said afterward, "it's still feeling the effects of that test." The purpose of the demonstration was to test the limits of the motor's design, understand the stress and strain on different materials, and see if the motor's components could withstand extreme conditions. The two-minute test mimics the time a booster would fire during a real launch. Northrop Grumman officials said the data from the BOLE test will help improve the design. The new boosters are not expected to fly until at least the late 2030s, and it's unclear whether they ever will. Proposed budget cuts for NASA would mean SLS production ceases after Artemis III, the first human moon landing since Apollo 17. That mission has been postponed until 2027 at the earliest. The White House has said it would like to see the space agency focus instead on using commercial systems. Lawmakers are still debating how many more SLS launches, about $4.1 billion each, to fund.
Yahoo
28-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Northrop Grumman tests future Artemis booster, but suffers destructive ‘anomaly'
Northrop Grumman saw some fiery drama during a test of a more powerful version of the solid rocket booster that would be used if NASA's Artemis program ever gets to its ninth launch using the beleaguered Space Launch System rocket. During a Thursday live stream by NASA of a static fire of the 156-foot-long Booster Obsolescence and Life Extension (BOLE) solid rocket motor, the end nozzle blew apart, sending debris flying across the camera followed by a black plume of smoke rising up from Northrop's Promontory, Utah test site. 'Whoa,' said one of the test controllers during the stream, just after the 100-second mark of the hot fire. Laying on its side, the booster was burning through the same amount of fuel that it would as if used on a launch. Northrop Grumman officials addressed the nozzle's demise in a press release later Thursday. 'Today's test pushed the boundaries of large solid rocket motor design to meet rigorous performance requirements,' said Jim Kalberer, Northrop Grumman's vice president of propulsion systems. 'While the motor appeared to perform well through the most harsh environments of the test, we observed an anomaly near the end of the two-plus minute burn.' The test is for a booster that wouldn't fly until at least next decade, and only if NASA sticks with SLS as a rocket option for its Artemis missions. '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 developments,' Kalberer said. Under the current NASA plan, the first eight Artemis launches use an SLS rocket with boosters that produce 3.4 million pounds of thrust each. The pair, combined with the core stage, created 8.8 million pounds of thrust on the Artemis I launch in 2022, which still is the most powerful rocket to ever make it into orbit. The BOLE version would increase thrust to 4 million pounds each, which would push SLS to near 10 million pounds of thrust on Artemis IX. The Trump administration's proposed budget for NASA, though, wants to kill off the use of the SLS rocket after Artemis III, although Congress is the ultimate decision-maker on what gets funded. So until directed otherwise, contractors continue to work on future versions of the SLS. Northrop Grumman's solid rocket boosters for Artemis are enhanced versions of similar boosters used during the Space Shuttle Program. The BOLE design is a solution to components no longer in production. The update uses a carbon fiber composite case and a different propellant formula among other features. The goal is a 10% increase in booster performance over the boosters used on Artemis I. That would equate to SLS being able to carry another 11,000 pounds of payload to lunar orbit. The nozzle issue was reminiscent of another Northrop Grumman booster problem seen in 2024. SpaceX Crew Dragon with 4 Axiom Space astronauts docks with space station Kennedy Space Center goes retro for Y2K after-hours event SpaceX launches historic mission to space station on new Crew Dragon dubbed 'Grace' Space Coast launch schedule With SLS rocket future uncertain, L3Harris still cranking out engines That's when a nozzle flew off of one of the boosters used on the United Launch Alliance Vulcan Certification-2 mission from Cape Canaveral. That incident contributed to a delay in the Space Force giving ULA the OK to fly national security missions. Northrop Grumman officials, though, said the ULA and Artemis boosters are not directly related. 'It is an entirely separate product,' said Mark Pond, senior director of NASA programs for Northrop Grumman's propulsion systems during an Artemis II media day last December at Kennedy Space Center. Artemis II is slated to launch no later than April 2026 on what would be the first crewed mission sending four astronauts on a trip around the moon, but not landing on it. 'From a concern standpoint, we've met all of our requirements, we've done all of our testing, we've met all of our acceptance tests and our delivery requirements, and for that reason, we are not concerned from an Artemis II perspective,' he said.
Gizmodo
27-06-2025
- Science
- Gizmodo
NASA's Next-Gen Rocket Booster Explodes in Test of a Design That May Never Fly
While the fate of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket hangs in the balance, the agency is pushing ahead with tests of new components needed to launch the vehicle toward the Moon. The latest test included the firing of a solid booster meant to replace NASA's shuttle-era rocket parts. Although the new booster started off strong, its nozzle appeared to get blown off around two minutes after it began firing its motor. On Thursday in Utah, Northrop Grumman conducted the first full-scale static fire test of the newly built solid rocket booster. NASA's Booster Obsolescence and Life Extension (BOLE) is the 'world's largest and most powerful segmented solid rocket motor,' according to Northrop Grumman. The test lasted for a little over two minutes, burning more than 1.4 million pounds of propellant. Toward the end, however, an unusually bright plume appeared to suddenly burn through parts of the booster, resulting in a large fireball and flying debris. In the video (shown below), the anomaly appears at the 22:15 mark. 'Today's test pushed the boundaries of large solid rocket motor design to meet rigorous performance requirements,' Jim Kalberer, vice president of propulsion systems at Northrop Grumman, said in a statement. 'While the motor appeared to perform well through the most harsh environments of the test, we observed an anomaly near the end of the two-plus minute burn.' The anomaly was likely caused by a faulty nozzle on the booster. 'The nozzle liberated energetically from the motor around 10 seconds before the burn ended, and there appeared to be some debris leaving the nozzle just before the main disintegration of the nozzle happened,' NASA Spaceflight reports. Northrop Grumman developed the new booster under a $3.2 billion contract with NASA. The booster features carbon-fiber composite cases, which are meant to be lighter and stronger than the shuttle-era steel cases currently on SLS. Instead of the SLS booster's current hydraulic thrust vector control steering system, BOLE uses an electronic system. It also uses a different propellant formula that's meant to increase performance by around 10% and adds another five metric tons of payload. NASA's massive, fully expendable Moon rocket is under heavy scrutiny. The 5.75-million-pound SLS was built using components from NASA's Space Shuttle program, which ran from 1981 to 2011. SLS is outfitted with four RS-25 engines originally built by Aerojet Rocketdyne for the shuttle project. NASA has a total of four contracts with Aerojet Rocketdyne for the RS-25 engines and Northrop Grumman for the boosters, which were also used during the Shuttle era, before the space agency switches to the newly designed BOLE. The new booster is intended for use on SLS beginning with Artemis 9, which is currently scheduled for 2034. SLS is a capable heavy-lift rocket, but it's ultimately unaffordable. The launch vehicle has already gone $6 billion over budget, with the projected cost of each SLS rocket being $144 million more than anticipated. That would increase the overall cost of a single Artemis launch to at least $4.2 billion, according to a report released in 2024 by the office of NASA's inspector general. In its budget proposal for 2026, the U.S. administration laid out a plan to phase out SLS and its Orion capsule, replacing them with commercial substitutes. To be clear, SLS is not officially dead, but it doesn't look good. Despite the uncertainty surrounding SLS, NASA carried out another test of the rocket's components last week. On June 20, the agency tested an RS-25 engine at the Fred Haise Test Stand at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. This was the first hot fire test of the new RS-25 engines, and it lasted around eight and a half minutes or 'the same amount of time RS-25 engines fire during a launch of an SLS rocket on Artemis missions to the Moon,' according to NASA. NASA seems to be making progress with the new designs for its SLS rocket, but it's not clear whether these new parts will get to launch a mission to the Moon.
