The American company Northrop Grumman terminates contracts with Russia and Ukraine and entered into an agreement with the startup Firefly Aerospace to develop a “completely domestic” version of Antares launch vehicles, Alpha Centauri reports.
Due to the war between Russia and Ukraine, difficulties arose with the supply of rocket components. The existing version of the rocket uses the first stage of the Ukrainian assembly, which is produced by the Yuzhnoy Design Bureau, and the Russian rocket engine RD-181, the production of NGO “Energomash”.
The American company reported that at present the first steps for the future two launches have already been created and the company is considering alternative options in case of potential problems with deliveries, but did not disclose parts. Antares is used to send Cygnus cargo ship to the ISS with a load of up to 8 tons. The Northrop Grumman expects that the Antares 330 is able to start operating in the late 2024 completely. While the necessary replacement of the nodes is being prepared for Antares, Northrop Grumman has concluded an agreement with SpaceX on the delivery of goods to the ISS as part of the Cygnus project Falcon 9.