Northrop Grumman

NASA WALLOPS ISLAND, Va.—I had been told that rocket launches are a physical experience, that the carefully controlled explosions that send payloads to space create waves of sound intense enough to be felt from over a mile away. But my first close-up experience with a launch involved the relatively small Electron rocket, and that left…

Enlarge / A Falcon 9 rocket launches a Starlink mission in January 2020.SpaceX SpaceX is reportedly working with at least one major US defense contractor, Northrop Grumman, on a constellation of spy satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office. According to Reuters, development of the network of hundreds of spy satellites by SpaceX is being coordinated…

Enlarge / Northrop Grumman proposed a free-flying space station based on Cygnus.Northrop Grumman Nearly two years ago, NASA placed its bets to develop commercial space stations on four companies—Blue Origin, Nanoracks, Northrop Grumman, and Axiom Space. Now, as the US space agency looks to find a successor to the International Space Station in low-Earth orbit,…

Enlarge / SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket Wednesday with six missile-tracking satellites for the US military. Two prototype satellites for the Missile Defense Agency and four missile tracking satellites for the US Space Force rode a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket into orbit Wednesday from Florida's Space Coast. These satellites are part of a new…

Northrop Grumman's full-scale booster ignites on Wednesday afternoon. This test took place in Promontory, Utah. NASA TV NASA and Northrop Grumman were collecting data on the booster's performance. NASA TV This shot from the head of the booster offers a nice sense of its power, 3 million pounds of thrust. NASA TV Two boosters provide…