NASA is touting what it says is a key test leading to the development of future heavy-lift launch vehicles: a structural strength test of a 20-foot-tall aluminum-lithium test cylinder, which received nearly 1 million pounds of force until it failed. The results of the work at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., will help the vehicles weigh less and reduce development costs, the agency says March 23. “This trailblazing project is examining the safety margins needed in the design of future, large launch vehicle structures,” NASA says in a press release. “Test results will be used to develop and validate structural analysis models and generate new “shell- buckling knockdown factors”–complex engineering design standards essential to launch vehicle design.”
Jeffrey Grant has been tapped by Northrop Grumman as vice president and general manager of the Space Systems Division of the Aerospace Systems sector. He replaces David M. DiCarlo, who is retiring. The company also named Robert Burke as vice president and deputy general manager, Space Systems Division.