Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) conducted a full-scale static fire of NASA’s Booster Obsolescence and Life Extension (BOLE) solid rocket booster—this was the first demonstration test of the enhanced, five-segment, solid rocket motor, the world’s largest and most powerful segmented solid rocket motor built for human spaceflight.
Over 700 data channels assessed the 156-foot-long solid rocket motor as it fired for just over two minutes, producing more than 4 million pounds of thrust from a single booster. Leveraging Northrop Grumman’s industry-leading experience in solid rocket motor manufacturing, BOLE improves on previous designs by replacing key components no longer in production.
The booster features a composite case design, updated propellant formulation and advanced components to increase booster performance by more than 10 percent compared with the current five-segment Space Launch System (SLS) booster design. The carbon fiber composite case enables better booster performance, faster manufacturing, and aligns with commercial standards by providing commonality among our infrastructure, supply chain, and manufacturing operations.
Other aspects of the BOLE design, including metallic components, allows the company to support a U.S.-based supply chain of American manufacturers. Compared with its predecessor, this evolved booster provides another five metric tons of payload to lunar orbit, a capability critical to supporting deep space missions.
Northrop Grumman supplied rocket propulsion for NASA’s Apollo and Space Shuttle Programs and developed the five-segment SLS solid rocket booster based on the flight-proven design of the space shuttle boosters. The five-segment booster, BOLE’s predecessor, generates 25 percent more power than its space shuttle predecessor, and provided over 75 percent of the SLS rocket’s initial thrust during the Artemis I mission on November 15, 2022.
Jim Kalberer, vice president, propulsion systems, Northrop Grumman, said, “Today’s test pushed the boundaries of large solid rocket motor design to meet rigorous performance requirements. While the motor appeared to perform well through a harsh burn environment, 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.”
