Graphite-Epoxy Motor in the context of "Launch service provider"

Northrop Grumman Corporation, headquartered in West Falls Church, Virginia, is an American aerospace and defense company that designs and manufactures systems for aeronautics, defense, missions, and space. The company is the 5th largest contractor of the U.S. federal government; it receives over 2% of total spending by the federal government of the United States on contractors.

The company's Aeronautics Systems division (29% of 2024 revenues) develops the B-21 Raider strategic bomber that can drop conventional and thermonuclear weapons (forecasted to be ready for combat in 2029), the B-2 Spirit strategic bomber (which will be replaced by the B-21), fuselage and radar production for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter and F/A-18 Super Hornet, Grumman E-2 Hawkeye airborne early warning and control, MQ-4C Triton unmanned aerial vehicle, and the NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance Force. The company's defense systems division (19% of 2024 revenues) designs the modernization of the intercontinental ballistic missile system including the LGM-35 Sentinel, the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System, Vinnell training, and the M1156 precision guidance kit. The company's mission systems division (25% of 2024 revenues) creates military radar, sensors, and related products, including C4I radar systems for air defense, Airspace Management radar systems such as AWACS, Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program, night vision goggles, Airport Movement Area Safety System, and battlefield surveillance systems like the Airborne Reconnaissance Low (ARL). Tactical aircraft sensors include the AN/APG-68 radar, the AN/APG-80 Active electronically scanned array radar, and the AN/APG-83 AESA radar upgrade for the F-16 Fighting Falcon, the AN/APG-77 AESA radar for the F-22 Raptor, and the AN/APG-81 AESA radar for the F-35 Lightning II, and the AN/AAQ-37 electro-optical Distributed Aperture System (DAS) for the F-35, and the APQ-164 Passive Electronically Scanned Array (PESA) radar for the B-1 Lancer. The company's space systems division (27% of 2024 revenues) develops Satcom communications satellites, Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared satellites, the Cygnus uncrewed spacecraft, motors for the NASA Space Launch System, logistics support for the Lunar Gateway, Graphite-Epoxy Motor solid rocket boosters, and satellites for the Norwegian Space Agency.

Atlas V is an expendable launch system and the fifth major version in the Atlas launch vehicle family. It was developed by Lockheed Martin and has been operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA) since 2006. Primarily used to launch payloads for the United States Department of Defense, NASA, and commercial customers, Atlas V is the longest-serving active rocket in the United States.

Each Atlas V vehicle consists of two main stages. The first stage is powered by a single Russian-made RD-180 engine that burns kerosene and liquid oxygen. The Centaur upper stage uses one or two American-made Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10 engines that burn liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Strap-on solid rocket boosters (SRBs) are used in several configurations. Originally equipped with AJ-60A SRBs, the vehicle switched to Graphite-Epoxy Motor (GEM 63) boosters beginning in November 2020, except for flights in the Boeing Starliner program. Standard payload fairings measure either 4.2 m (14 ft) or 5.4 m (18 ft) in diameter, with multiple available lengths.

A booster is a rocket (or rocket engine) used either in the first stage of a multistage launch vehicle or in parallel with longer-burning sustainer rockets to augment the space vehicle's takeoff thrust and payload capability. Boosters are traditionally necessary to launch spacecraft into low Earth orbit (absent a single-stage-to-orbit design), and are especially important for a space vehicle to go beyond Earth orbit. The booster is dropped to fall back to Earth once its fuel is expended, a point known as booster engine cut-off (BECO).

Following booster separation, the rest of the launch vehicle continues flight with its core or upper-stage engines. The booster may be recovered, refurbished and reused, as was the case of the steel casings used for the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters.