Northrop Grumman is partnering with rocket startup Firefly Aerospace to build a new version of its workhorse Antares rocket without Russian-made engines that were cut off from the United States after the invasion of Ukraine, the company said.
The new version of Antares, a rocket which NASA uses to ferry cargo to the International Space Station, will use seven Miranda engines under development by Firefly, Northrop said in a statement, adding that the two companies will later work on an entirely new launch vehicle.
“Through our collaboration, we will first develop a fully domestic version of our Antares rocket, the Antares 330, for Cygnus space station commercial resupply services, followed by an entirely new medium class launch vehicle,” Scott Lehr, Northrop Grumman’s vice president and general manager of launch and missile defense systems, said in a press release issued by TechCrunch.
