In January 2016, Orbital ATK was one of two companies awarded funds by the United States Air Force to develop technologies to eliminate dependency on the Russian-made RD-180 rocket engine for US national security payloads. The award was worth an initial $46.9 million, with an option for up to $180.2 million total. This was to be matched by $31.1 million initially, and up to $124.8 million in company funds if all options of the contract are exercised. The contract would fund the development of three technologies in support of the OmegA rocket, then called Next Generation Launcher: the GEM-63XL strap-on booster, a Common Booster Core and an extendable nozzle for the BE-3U upper stage engine. A previous effort, funded by NASA, demonstrated the technology for a composite motor case to replace the metal motor cases used for Space Shuttle SRBs. In May 2016, Orbital ATK revealed their plans for the Next Generation Launcher, including the configuration and the intended business case. The Next Generation Launcher intends to make use of existing launch infrastructure at Kennedy Space Center, including the Vehicle Assembly Building used by the Space Shuttle, with the possibility of polar orbit launches occurring from Vandenberg Air Force Base. NASA began looking for commercial users to operate unused space within the Vehicle Assembly Building in June 2015, and by April 2016, it was announced that Orbital ATK was in negotiations to lease High Bay 2. Orbital ATK claimed that a minimum of 5–6 launches per year would be required to make the rocket profitable. Full development and introduction will be dependent on both demand and funding from the US Air Force. A final "go/no-go decision" to proceed with full development and introduction of the Next Generation Launcher took place in early 2018. In April 2017, Orbital ATK revealed that OmegA would be launched from pad 39B at KSC, sharing launch facilities and mobile transporter with the NASA Space Launch System. The rocket would compete for USAF national security launches and NASA missions. There would be multiple configurations of the launch system, with multiple stages. In April 2018, Orbital ATK announced that Next Generation Launcher would be named OmegA. Additionally, they revealed the selection of the RL-10C engine over Blue Origin's BE-3U competitor. The intermediate configuration, with a Castor 600 first stage, increased payload to GTO from to. The Castor 1200-powered Heavy configuration increased GEO payload from to and has a TLI capability of up to 12,300 kg. Orbital ATK was purchased by Northrop Grumman in 2018, and OmegA became a Northrop Grumman product. In October 2018, OmegA was awarded a Launch Services Agreement worth $791,601,015 to design, build and launch the first OmegA rockets. In late May 2019, while conducting a static fire test of the first stage SRB, an anomaly occurred resulting in the destruction of the SRB nozzle. A thorough investigation revealed that the differential pressure between the nozzle's internal pressure and surface pressure following the static fire test was greater than expected; when thrust levels dropped below a critical point upon completion of the static fire, the outside air crushed the nozzle "in an instant, just like a soda can." In 2019, Northrop Grumman bid the OmegA launch vehicle to the US Air Force for the multi-year block buy launch contract that would cover all US national security launches in 2022–2026.
Multiple configurations
The rocket will have two basic configurations, an intermediate and a heavy launch. Both configurations would have a minimum of 2 thrust vectoring GEM-63XLTs for roll control. The intermediate version will have a two segment solid rocket booster first stage, a single segment SRB second stage, and a liquid hydrogen fueled third stage. The heavy configuration will have a 4-segment SRB first stage, and the same upper stages. Additional versions are projected to add additional SRBs as side boosters. The SRBs are to share avionics suites with other Orbital ATK rockets to reduce costs.
