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An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile launches during an operational test at 1:13 a.m. Pacific Time Oct. 2, 2019, at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman a $13.3 billion contract to engineer and manufacture its next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile. (Air Force Photo by Staff Sgt. J.T. Armstrong) The U.S. Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman a $13.3 billion contract for the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase of the service's next-generation intercontinental ballistic missiles to replace the aging Minuteman III ICBMs. The service on Tuesday said the contract for the Ground Based...

With the first two major elements of NASA’s Lunar Gateway under contract and development, Northrop Grumman has outlined their plans for the overall Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) module, which will serve as the primary habitation and nexus for the lunar station. HALO will now launch in a fully integrated configuration with Maxar’s Power and Propulsion Element — a change that has brought about alterations to HALO. The duo will launch aboard a yet-to-be-officially confirmed rocket from the Florida spaceport in 2023. The cargo items now excluded from launching on HALO will have to be delivered separately on a future...

A team of Chinese doctors sent to North Korea to help determine the status of ruler Kim Jong-un's health according to the Reuters News Agency. Also a report by Hong Kong Satellite Television stating that Kim was dead..... A police crackdown in Vienna, Austria today as hundreds protested against coronavirus house arrest restrictions.... You Tube censorship with word that "medically unsubstantiated" content will be banned..... President Trump signing the latest big spending bill..... Its beyond the statute of limitations, but the Metropolitan Police in Washington DC are investigating the sexual assault allegation of Tara Reade agains former Vice-President and presumptive...

If you’re not in the U.S. mid-Atlantic region, you can also watch live coverage of the Cygnus launch on NASA TV and the agency’s website. TV coverage begins Sunday at 22:00 UTC (5 p.m. EST). This will be Northrop Grumman’s 13th commercial resupply mission to ISS using its Cygnus cargo spacecraft. The spacecraft will be loaded with approximately 8,000 pounds (3,600 kg) of research, crew supplies, and hardware. The Cygnus spacecraft will arrive at the space station on Tuesday, February 11. ISS astronauts will capture Cygnus with the station’s robotic arm and install the spacecraft. Cygnus is scheduled to stay...

Defense contractor Northrop Grumman has begun moving secret cargo through a Southern California marina this weekend. The large object will be taken from a Northrop Grumman facility in Redondo Beach to a barge for shipment to San Diego. Northrop Grumman officials cited national security concerns in declining to provide information about the object. The company agreed on Oct. 15 to pay the city $25,000 for a licensing agreement to use the marina and for any costs the city incurs.

DES MOINES, Iowa – On September 19, 2019, a federal grand jury returned an Indictment charging defendants, Jessica Rae Reznicek and Ruby Katherine Montoya, with one count of conspiracy to damage an energy facility, four counts of use of fire in the commission of a felony, and four counts of malicious use of fire, announced United States Attorney Marc Krickbaum. Montoya was recently arrested in the District of Arizona and detained pending court proceedings to determine her appearance in the Southern District of Iowa. Reznicek appeared in Des Moines on October 1, 2019 and was conditionally released pending trial. Trial...

Early in September, international news was awash with the claim that 87 elephants had been “killed by poachers” in Botswana. The story originated from the NGO Elephants Without Borders, which received massive publicity – and presumably donations – as a result. Even the beleaguered UK Prime Minister tweeted the story, while a petition calling for wildlife guards to be re-armed surpassed 150,000 signatures. I know a little of Botswana. A few years ago, I was declared “public enemy number one”, threatened by a government spokesman on television, and banned from the country. This was because Survival International was instrumental in...

Northrop Grumman and Raytheon have revealed that they have been working together on a scramjet-powered hypersonic cruise missile, which uses an engine that is entirely 3D-printed. Their design is competing against one from Lockheed Martin under the Defense Advanced Research Project's Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept program, or HAWC. The two companies publicly announced their partnership at the 2019 Paris Air Show on June 18, 2019, but they have been working together secretly for years on HAWC, according to Aviation Week. DARPA began the HAWC program in 2014, in cooperation with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). "We have a...

Northrop Grumman’s first big test of its future OmegA rocket seems to have ended in a small explosion. Today, the company fired up the main engine on the rocket during a ground test in Utah. Toward the end of the test, part of the vehicle’s engine burst apart, sending pieces of hardware flying. Today’s test is what is known as a static fire, when the engine of a rocket is ignited while the vehicle is held firmly to the ground. Northrop Grumman was conducting the very first static fire test of the OmegA’s first stage — the main body of...

Acquiring space launch company Orbital ATK in an all-cash $7.8 billion merger, Northrop took possession of Orbital's Minotaur and Antares medium-lift rocket families. It acquired Orbital's ongoing project to build a new "OmegA" class heavy lift rocket as well, with which to compete against the likes of United Launch Alliance and SpaceX for large commercial and military satellite launches. Northrop Grumman also inherited Orbital's ongoing NASA contract to resupply crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS) with needed consumables under the agency's CRS-1 and CRS-2 "Commercial Resupply Services" contracts -- missions valued at as much as $14 billion across the...

Hypersonic technology -- weapons and interceptors able to travel at least five times the speed of sound -- are a top Pentagon priority and an area where China and Russia are perceived to be ahead of U.S. military efforts. The Defense Department has committed to spend aggressively to catch up. Based on initial contract awards, it's becoming clear that Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) is outpacing the competition in the battle to win the lion's share of those awards. Lockheed Martin earlier this month was awarded a $480 million contract to develop a hypersonic air-launched, rapid response weapon (ARRW). The award could...

“Taken together – 120 combat-coded bombers, 20 trainers, and 24 planes for backup and attrition planning purposes – the minimum buy would be 164 aircraft." Why 100 Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider Stealth Bombers Might Not Be Enough Northrop Grumman’s B-21 Raider stealth bomber is rapidly approaching its critical design review (CDR), when a Pentagon review team will determine if the new aircraft is meeting the technical requirements set forth in its requirements documents. If the design passes its CDR, the B-21 team will be cleared to build, integrate and test the aircraft before its next hurdle: the production readiness review....

In his address made on March 3rd, 2018 at the Antelope Valley Board of Trade and Business Outlook Conference, which was covered closely by the Antelope Valley Press, General Schaefer made the B-21's future basing crystal clear once and for all: "For the first time ever, I would like to publicly announce that the B-21 will be tested at Edwards Air Force Base... Edwards has been the home of bomber test and now we also can publicly release that the B-21 is coming to Edwards and we will be testing it here in the near future." Shaefer went on to...

Many people awaited last Sunday’s Falcon 9 launch from Cape Canaveral of a highly classified US payload. The launch had been delayed for weeks, speculation as to the satellite’s purpose was rampant, and successfully delivering national security satellites to orbit is an important part of SpaceX’s business. The launch, however, remains shrouded in mystery.Shortly after the launch, Bloomberg reported that the satellite was lost, due to US Strategic Command saying they were not tracking any objects. The Wall Street Journal suggested that Congress was being briefed on a failure, and that it was due to a failure of the satellite...

Last night at 8:00 p.m. EST, SpaceX conducted its first launch of the year, carrying a classified spacecraft built by Northrop Grumman for the U.S. government code-named "Zuma." Now reports are circulating that the Zuma spacecraft might have been lost following the launch. Peter B. de Selding, a spaceflight reporter for Space Intel Report, first tweeted that sources suggested to him that the satellite "may be dead in orbit after separation." ...Popular Mechanics has reached out to both SpaceX and Northrop Grumman for comment about the fate of the satellite. Northrop did not immediately reply, but a SpaceX spokesperson issued...

Northrop won the bomber contract in 2015... activity is ramping up sharply under an Air Force budget that has reached $2 billion for this fiscal year. ... The project marks a sharp turnaround in the fortunes of the Southern California aerospace industry, which has been atrophying since the end of the Cold War. It was widely assumed that the region would never again be home to a large aircraft manufacturing program and now it has one of the largest in modern history. The program is breathing new life into an industry that once defined the Southern California economy. ... A...

Falls Church-based Northrop said it would pay $7.8 billion in cash, while assuming $1.4 billion in debt. ... Northrop is one of the Pentagon’s leading suppliers, and is developing its B-21 stealth bomber. Orbital ATK, an aerospace manufacturer based in Dulles, holds a contract with NASA to resupply the International Space Station. It also builds the motors for several missile systems, as well as commercial and national security satellites. The acquisition would mark a bold move for Northrop that would establish the new venture as a fourth business sector. It comes as the company was seeking to bolster its space...

The Center for American Progress is a left-wing organization that is closely associated with the Obama administration. Its principal product is a web site called Think Progress. Think Progress is part of the internet cesspool that modern liberalism has become. Written by hack left-wing bloggers, it is bitterly hostile to free enterprise. It is a low-rent site that traffics in the most absurd smears and conspiracy theories. Many have wondered for some years who finances far-left web sites like Think Progress. As of today, we know at least part of the answer, as CAP released its corporate donor list for...

This mission was launched aboard a Delta IV Heavy configuration Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV), which featured a center common booster core along with two strap-on common booster cores. The ULA Delta IV Heavy is currently the world's largest rocket, providing the nation with reliable and proven heavy lift capability. Each common booster core was powered by an RS-68A liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen engine producing 702,000 pounds of thrust. A single RL10 liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen engine powered the second stage. The booster and upper stage engines are both built by Aerojet Rocketdyne. ULA constructed the Delta IV Heavy launch vehicle in...

Surveillance satellite launching Thursday atop Delta 4-Heavy rocket CAPE CANAVERAL — One of the largest satellites in the world will launch aboard America’s biggest operational booster Thursday, riding that power to a listening post 22,300 miles above the planet for its clandestine eavesdropping mission, all indications suggest. A United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket will fly from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 37 at 1:59 p.m. EDT (1759 GMT). Although the duration of the day’s usable launch window has not been revealed, officials previously said liftoff would occur by 6:30 p.m. EDT (2230 GMT). Weather forecasters say there is a risk of...