Northrop Grumman built the twin solid rocket boosters, which provide more than 75 % of the initial thrust. The company also manufactures the attitude control motor and abort motor for the Launch Abort System.

Jim Kalberer, VP Propulsion Systems at Northrop Grumman, says:“ The power and performance the Northrop Grumman-manufactured solid rocket boosters provide the SLS rocket is critical to America’ s new age of exploration and building a sustainable human presence in deep space ahead of missions to Mars.”

United Launch Alliance( ULA), a joint venture between Lockheed Martin Space and Boeing Defense, Space & Security, built the interim cryogenic propulsion stage( ICPS) which provides the final push toward the moon. This stage was manufactured at the rocket factory in Decatur, Alabama and then delivered to the Kennedy Space Center in March 2025.

Northrop Grumman’ s solid rocket boosters generated 7.2 million pounds of thrust at liftoff

FOUNDED: 1994 HEADQUARTERS: VIRGINIA, US NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 100,000

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