Northrop Grumman’s first big test of its future OmegA rocket appears to have ended in a small explosion. Today, the company fired the rocket’s main engine during a ground test in Utah. Towards the end of the test, part of the vehicle’s engine exploded, sending pieces of hardware flying.
Today’s test is what is known as static fire, when a rocket engine ignites while the vehicle is held firmly against the ground. Northrop Grumman was conducting the first static fire test of OmegA’s first stage – the main body of the rocket with the prime mover attached to the end. The first stage was fired horizontally at Northrop Grumman’s test facility in Promontory, Utah, with the goal of testing all rocket systems as one working unit.
“We looked at the exit cone and maybe a part of it doing something a little strange.”
The ignition lasted a full 122 seconds, sending flames and plumes of gas into the Utah desert. But just before the shot went off, the OmegA engine nozzle, the large cylindrical cone through which gas and fire flow, apparently exploded. Northrop Grumman claims that the test was still successful, despite “an observed observation at the end of the test” involving the nozzle.
“Ultimately, when the engine was shutting down, we looked at the exit cone and maybe a part of it doing something a little strange that we need to investigate further,” Kent Rominger, former astronaut and Northrop Grumman Vice President and Lead Capture for the system OmegA launch, said during a press conference after the shooting. When asked what would happen if this same failure occurred during a flight, Rominger said they would have to review the data a bit more. “What we saw was at the end of the tail – it means it could have had a very normal nominal thrust profile,” Rominger said. “But the truth is that we have to go to throw the data to analyze that.”
“The truth is that we have to go to throw the data to analyze that.”
The OmegA is Northrop Grumman’s next-generation rocket, derived from the robust rocket propellants that were used to aid the launch of the space shuttle. The company has been developing the rocket to launch payloads for the United States government. In November, Northrop Grumman received $ 791.6 million from the US Air Force for further development of the OmegA, so the rocket could potentially launch national security payloads in the future. Soon, the Air Force will select two companies to launch all military satellites between 2022 and 2026, and Northrop Grumman is one of four companies bidding for those contracts.
Rominger noted that anomalies like this are why companies test their rockets before flying them. “We’re going to dig into this data and see what it tells us,” he said.
