Northrop Grumman announced today (June 6th) it has conducted a full-scale static fire of what it calls “the world’s largest and most powerful segmented solid rocket motor built for human spaceflight.” The testing on NASA’s Booster Obsolescence and Life Extension (BOLE) solid rocket booster represents the first demonstration of the enhanced five-segment solid rocket motor.
The 156-foot solid rocket motor fired for a little more than two minutes and generated more than 4 million pounds of thrust from a single booster, according to Northrop Grumman. The company said in a statement, “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.”
Jim Kalberer, Northrop Grumman v-p of propulsion systems, 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.
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