Main Engine Cut OffGEM 63 Boosters to Fly on Atlas V in “About a Year”
Forgot to post this until now, but last week after the GOES-S launch, I asked ULA CEO Tory Bruno when we’d see the new Orbital ATK GEM 63 solid boosters on Atlas V. He responded: “About a year or so.”
That’s exactly on schedule per what we heard in this Spaceflight Insider interview back in September 2015:
“We’ll have the GEM 63 static-fired and qualified in late 2018 […] and I think that would equate to an initial launch with GEM-63s in 2019, probably early that year,” Orbital ATK’s Program Manager for GEM 63/63 XL Jason Meredith told SpaceFlight Insider.
Aerojet Rocketdyne is riding that AJ-60A press train as long as possible.