Northrop Grumman lost $71 million from its bottom line because of its solid-fueled booster failures
In its most recent financial statement, Northrop Grumman admitted it took a $71 million charge due to nozzle failures on two of its solid-fueled boosters, dubbed GEM 63XL, during two different launches of ULA’s Vulcan rocket.
In a statement about its first-quarter financial results, the company said its Space Systems division recorded a $71 million “unfavorable adjustment” to earnings at completion on its GEM 63XL booster “associated with a launch anomaly that occurred during the first quarter.”
The GEM 63XL solid-fuel booster is used on United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket. On a Feb. 12 launch, one of four boosters shed debris about 65 seconds after liftoff. The “observation,” as ULA termed it initially, did not affect the success of the USSF-87 mission, placing its payload into its planned geosynchronous orbit.
ULA later called the incident a “significant performance anomaly” with the booster that it would investigate before returning Vulcan to flight. The vehicle has not launched since then.
A similar incidence took place during an earlier Vulcan launch, with the rocket’s core stage and the remaining undamaged boosters getting the payload into the proper orbit. The continuing problem however has now grounded Vulcan, though the military is considering using it for some small payload launches, without the GEM strap-on boosters.
As a result, the Pentagon has already shifted several launches from ULA to SpaceX, costing ULA a significant amount of revenue. In addition, Vulcan’s grounding will impact the launch of Amazon’s Leo internet constellation, which had a major contract with ULA to get its Leo satellites into orbit.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
In its most recent financial statement, Northrop Grumman admitted it took a $71 million charge due to nozzle failures on two of its solid-fueled boosters, dubbed GEM 63XL, during two different launches of ULA’s Vulcan rocket.
In a statement about its first-quarter financial results, the company said its Space Systems division recorded a $71 million “unfavorable adjustment” to earnings at completion on its GEM 63XL booster “associated with a launch anomaly that occurred during the first quarter.”
The GEM 63XL solid-fuel booster is used on United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket. On a Feb. 12 launch, one of four boosters shed debris about 65 seconds after liftoff. The “observation,” as ULA termed it initially, did not affect the success of the USSF-87 mission, placing its payload into its planned geosynchronous orbit.
ULA later called the incident a “significant performance anomaly” with the booster that it would investigate before returning Vulcan to flight. The vehicle has not launched since then.
A similar incidence took place during an earlier Vulcan launch, with the rocket’s core stage and the remaining undamaged boosters getting the payload into the proper orbit. The continuing problem however has now grounded Vulcan, though the military is considering using it for some small payload launches, without the GEM strap-on boosters.
As a result, the Pentagon has already shifted several launches from ULA to SpaceX, costing ULA a significant amount of revenue. In addition, Vulcan’s grounding will impact the launch of Amazon’s Leo internet constellation, which had a major contract with ULA to get its Leo satellites into orbit.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Northrop Grumman at least has a rocket.
By comparison, about a month ago, there was a BTB post about two launch sites in Atlantic Canada. Here are two follow-up items:
https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2026/04/22/the-libranos-to-boldly-go/
https://x.com/Tablesalt13/status/2046965998272585868
Sadly, the cynical replies are probably accurate.
When I made my own solid fuel rocket engines as a kid my biggest problem was those dang nozzles. Either too heavy or too fragile. Those liquid fueled jobs can use propellants to cool things, which is an amazing advantage. Maybe ULA can litigate to make Northrop Grumman pay ULA to use the BE-4 engine in a side car set of boosters. Very old architecture like R-7 or Falcon Heavy. A design that has been working for 70 years. A new launch pad too. Either that or just give up. Blue Origin also avoids solids. When Blue gets fully going ULA is toast.
BMJ,
The only rockets NorGrum currently has are the various Minotaurs that are mostly constructed from surplus ICBM motors on a very occasional basis.
It used to have the Antares, but that vehicle’s 1st stage hull was fabricated in Ukraine and its engines were Russian. Russia’s second invasion of Ukraine included pulverizing the factory that once made the Antares hulls and resulted in sanctions that halted the flow of engines.
Thus, NorGrum’s current tie-up with Firefly to get an affordable all-American 1st stage. That project is behind schedule as all such projects tend to be and NorGrum is getting by in the interim by buying launches for its Cygnus ISS cargo resupply vehicle from SpaceX.
Considering how many times SpaceX has launched payloads for its notional competitors, it probably deserves to be considered an honorary Irish company. It used to be said that the Irish got through hard times by taking in each other’s washing. SpaceX has certainly taken in plenty of “washing” for its various hard-luck competitors.
Canadian space endeavor has been a Charlie Foxtrot pretty much from the get-go. Given that everything else in Canada is also now a Charlie Foxtrot I have no expectations that things will much improve there unless Western Canada secedes. That improvement, unfortunately, will be entirely restricted to Western Canada. The rest of that preposterously mismanaged place will fall into ruin and that includes all of its current space endeavors.
GeorgeC,
Never had the stones to try making my own solid-fuel engines as a lad – strictly an Estes user. Me and my fellow junior space cadets did manage to locate some plans for a liquid-fueled small rocket design but we lacked the needed machine tools to instantiate it.
Dick Eagleson:
Canada used to launch sounding rockets (Black Brant) from the range near Churchill, Manitoba and Bristol Aerospace in Winnipeg built them. The facility was closed nearly 30 years ago when an attempt to make it into a spaceport didn’t go anywhere.
Perhaps the best-known name was SPAR Aerospace. It used to have a satellite plant in the Montreal area where it built some of the Aniks. It was in the news about 45 years ago because it designed and built the Remote Manipulator System (often referred to as the “Canadarm”) for the space shuttle.
Parts of the company changed hands a few times starting in the 1990s. (Who bought what and when and where it is now is rather hard to follow.) I think its satellite division is now part of MDA Space (which began as MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates) and ATK has the robotics group.
To GeorgeC
Dynetics proposed Pyrios, a booster to use two F-1 engines. No solids needed.
Rocketry development doesn’t get the respect it deserves.
ULA wanted as few liquid fueled engines as they could get away with…hoping solids that gave Atlas no trouble would let them get by here.
You don’t skimp.
For years following the death of the Saturns, the official stance was “don’t have more rocket than you need.”
R-7 started off as not only an ICBM, but the largest ICBM ever fielded. (Proton never had a warhead, SS-9/18 Titan II class only).
Delta II, a miserable crutch, wasn’t even an ICBM…it was a Thor IRBM…a liquid fuel version of what Pershing II became.
Thor is, of course, how the Air Force spells “Scud.” Just kidding, Mr. Z.
They kept stretching that bloody thing, wrapping solids around it.
That line of thinking poisoned some of our steely eyed missile men.
In terms of solids, land based ICBM crews were treated badly by the USAF.
If you aren’t a pilot, you’re little people.
I have had a deep and abiding hatred towards that branch of the service that makes AMs revulsion towards humans in “I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream” just look like a bad mood.
BMJ,
Didn’t know Black Brants were ever either built or launched in Canada. Interesting.
Agree about the difficulty of following the various games of three-card monte involving SPAR and MDA. The bits now in US hands will likely survive and prosper but whatever is left north of the 49th parallel will probably have a less rosy future.
Dick Eagleson:
The Black Brants were a popular rocket. The seafloor of Hudson’s Bay is littered with spent BB stages. But parts of them were often used for certain sounding missions–the first stage might be, say, a Nike while the second could be a BB.
The Canadian aerospace industry lost its way for a few years after the cancellation of the Avro Arrow in 1959. Much of the technical and scientific talent went south of the border and many former employees had prominent positions with NASA. For example, Jim Chamberlain headed Gemini for about a year and Owen Maynard worked on Mercury and, later, the Apollo LM.
A real shame about the Arrow, TSR-2, etc.
As an American, I want to take this time to apologize for inflicting the F-111 upon the world.
BMJ,
My impression of the Canadian aerospace industry these days is that it consists pretty much of just biz and regional jets and whatever pieces of the companies formerly known as Spar and MDA remain north of my old stomping grounds in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The latter we would sometimes refer to playfully as Baja Canada – pronounced with a tilda over the ‘n,’ so BA-Ha Can-YADA.
If I’m missing anything significant, please feel free to set me straight. I’ve always had a soft spot for Canuckistan in spite of its persistent self-destructve tendencies.
Mr Eagleson, you can’t type Charlie Foxtrot to avoid the ban on profanity! We all heard in our heads what you meant.
I wished I lived in Toronto….