Northrop Grumman

Long-delayed NASA science satellite gets October launch date

September 10, 2019 Stephen Clark

The launch of a NASA ionospheric research satellite off Florida’s east coast is targeted for Oct. 9 after persistent technical problems with its air-dropped Pegasus rocket stymied two launch opportunities last year.

James Webb Space Telescope fully assembled in California

August 29, 2019 Stephen Clark

Teams working in Northrop Grumman’s spacecraft factory in Southern California have connected the spacecraft and science modules of the James Webb Space Telescope for the first time, a major milestone as engineers prepare to verify a fix to tears in the observatory’s sunshield, and begin launch vibration and acoustic testing in the coming months.

Cygnus supply ship departs space station, begins extended mission

August 6, 2019 Stephen Clark

Wrapping up 109 days attached to the International Space Station, a Northrop Grumman Cygnus supply ship departed the orbiting research lab Tuesday to begin an extended four-month mission for additional technology demonstrations and smallsat deployments.

Halfway through all-sky survey, NASA’s planet-hunting TESS mission gets extension

August 3, 2019 Stephen Clark

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, fresh off a two-year extension to keep operating through 2022, has turned its cameras to image the northern sky after cataloguing nearly 1,000 candidate planets around other stars in the first year of its mission.

NASA taps Northrop Grumman in sole-source agreement to build Gateway habitat

July 23, 2019 Stephen Clark

Racing against the clock to meet the Trump administration’s 2024 deadline to land astronauts on the moon, NASA plans to select Northrop Grumman to build a pressurized habitation module derived from the company’s Cygnus cargo craft for living quarters for crews transiting to and from the lunar surface.

SpaceX wins NASA contract to launch X-ray telescope on reused rocket

July 8, 2019 Stephen Clark

NASA has selected a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket — flying with a reused first stage booster — to launch the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer mission from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in April 2021, bypassing Northrop Grumman’s air-launched Pegasus rocket for the task.

Long-delayed NASA science satellite gets October launch date

James Webb Space Telescope fully assembled in California

Cygnus supply ship departs space station, begins extended mission

Halfway through all-sky survey, NASA’s planet-hunting TESS mission gets extension

NASA taps Northrop Grumman in sole-source agreement to build Gateway habitat

SpaceX wins NASA contract to launch X-ray telescope on reused rocket

Photos: NASA conducts key Orion abort test

Watch replays of the Orion inflight abort test

Orion abort test post-launch briefing (members only)

NASA successfully tests Orion launch abort system before moon flights