Utah-built booster rockets help launch Atlas V payload into deep space
Aug 1, 2024, 5:00 PM | Updated: Aug 5, 2024, 5:13 pm
United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket, with five Northrop Grumman GEM 63 solid rocket boosters, lifts off from Cape Canaveral to launch the USSF-51 mission. (Photo Credit: Northrop Grumman)
(Photo Credit: Northrop Grumman)
SALT LAKE CITY — Five Utah-built booster rockets helped launch an Atlas V payload from Cape Canaveral, Fla., into deep space early Tuesday.
Bret Baldwin, director of programs with Northrop Grumman, said the company wasn’t told much about the payload because it was classified by the U.S. Space Force.
He said the five GEM-63 boosters are each 70 feet tall and strapped to the 200-foot-tall Atlas V rocket. Each solid rocket booster provides 375,000 pounds of thrust or nearly 2 million pounds in total, he said.
United Launch Alliance is transitioning from the Atlas V rocket to the new, larger and more powerful Vulcan rocket. A U.S. launch service, ULA is a joint venture between Lockheed Martin Space and Boeing Defense, Space & Security.
“We’re really focused on supporting Vulcan into the future,” Baldwin said.
Baldwin said Northrop Grumman, a multinational aerospace and defense company, will produce about 30 rocket boosters this year but will be ramping up production to 90 boosters a year by 2027.
