An epic rocket motor test is preparing for a private moon landing in 2021
ULA is under the gun to make its rockets more competitive in a market with soaring competition. Numerous startup companies are rising to the challenge of sending robotic missions and satellites into space, with innovations including 3-D printing and advanced propulsion.
The new rocket motor will serve as ULA’s competitive edge for Vulcan Centaur. A Northrop Grumman spokesperson said the enhanced GEM 63XL is 15 percent to 20 percent more powerful than the"standard" GEM 63 motor. The enhanced motor uses"state-of-the-art manufacturing technology to enhance launch vehicle heavy-lift capabilities,” Charlie Precourt, a retired NASA astronaut and Northrop Grumman’s vice president of propulsion systems, said in a statement.
The GEM 63XL motor test produced nearly a half-million pounds of thrust and was used to qualify the motor's insulation, propellant gain, ballistics and nozzle in a cold environment similar to what one would expect in the high upper atmosphere, while the rocket is flying. The GEM strap-on motor family was first developed in the early 1980s, and various versions have flown on ULA rockets including the Delta 2, Delta 2 Heavy and Delta 4. The first flight of the GEM 63 standard motors will be on a heavy-lift ULA Atlas V launch vehicle, which is scheduled for launch in the fourth quarter of 2020., known as the lunar module. The vehicle made six landings on the moon between 1969 and 1972, carrying 12 Apollo astronauts safely to the surface and back to lunar orbit.
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