Northrop Grumman wins NASA contract for SLS booster production - SpaceNews

2 for the production of several pairs of Space Launch System solid rocket boosters as well as development of a new version of the booster.

The Booster Production and Operations Contract (BPOC), with a maximum value of $3.19 billion, covers production of the five-segment boosters that will be used on the Artemis 4 through Artemis 8 missions.

It also includes funding for development of a new version of the boosters, called Booster Obsolescence and Life Extension (BOLE), including production of the first pair for the Artemis 9 mission.

The boosters for Artemis 4 through 8 “will carry us through the expenditure of the heritage shuttle hardware,” namely the steel cases used to house the booster segments, said Mark Tobias, SLS Deputy and BOLE Chief Engineer and Northrop Grumman Fellow, in a Dec.

Besides the boosters that will help launch Artemis 1 in early 2022, the booster segments for Artemis 2 are complete and the motors for Artemis 3 cast.

That would consolidate SLS production and operations into a single contract, called the Exploration Production and Operations Contract (EPOC), with NASA purchasing SLS launches as a service at a rate one crewed flight a year and possibly one or more cargo flights a year.

The EPOC proposal is “very synergistic” with the work Northrop will be doing on its new BPOC contract, Tobias said.