Our industry leadership is based on more than fifty years of innovation and excellence, advancing yesterday's imagination of the possibilities of aerospace to today's technological advances in numerous fields.
Northrop Grumman Space Technology was formed in 1953, when Simon Ramo and Dean Wooldridge formed a new company, Ramo-Wooldridge, and received a contract to oversee the U.S. Air Force ICBM program. In 1958, the company provided NASA with the first satellite ever built by private industry, Pioneer 1.
The company has built more than 195 communications, defense and scientific spacecraft; produced, integrated, and tested more than 130 communications payloads and subsystems; developed more than 200 advanced space instruments, and integrated more than 550 experiments into their host spacecraft. It has also defined the state of the art in several emerging technologies, including microelectronics and high-energy lasers.
We have a history rich in technological firsts and noteworthy achievements, including:
2007 - The Department of Defense (DoD) presents Northrop Grumman Space Technology the Nunn-Perry Award in recognition of outstanding and successful mentor-protege relationships. This marks the sixth award from the DoD honoring the company's sponsorship and committment to mentoring Small Disadvantaged Businesses.
2007 - Directed Energy Systems dedicates a new facility to develop and produce high-energy lasers. The facility, located at Space Park in Redondo Beach, has several laser labs, class-1000 clean rooms and other specialized areas for solid-state laser technology development.
2006 - Northrop Grumman's Strategic Illuminator Laser (SILL) demonstrates multi-kilowatt-class average laser output power, operating at 5 kHz, with outstanding beam quality for a run time of five minutes.
2005 - Northrop Grumman's Joint High Power Solid State Laser (JHPSSL) demonstrator blasts one of the most powerful (more than 27kW), continuously operating (350 seconds), solid-state laser beams ever produced by an electric laser - believed to be the brightest beam ever produced by this technology.
2005 - Northrop Grumman wins NASA's prestigious George M. Low Award, the agency's premier award for demonstrated excellence and outstanding technical and managerial achievements in quality and performance.
2005 - The Department of Defense (DoD) presents Northrop Grumman with two Nunn-Perry Awards in recognition ofSpace Technology's committment to helping small companies establish themselves in the federal marketplace.
2005 - NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, built by Northrop Grumman Space Technology, finds evidence that a swarm of 10,000 or more black holes may be orbiting the Milky Way's super massive black hole near the galactic center.
2004 - Northrop Grumman demonstrates laser built for Airborne Laser System. "First Light" test marks the first time a directed energy system for use in airborne environment demonstrated.
2004 - NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and Northrop Grumman awarded the National Space Club's 2004 Nelson P. Jackson Aerospace Award for TDRS, a system that enhanced earth-to-space communications for more than 20 years.
2004 - Awarded NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Contractor Excellence Award.
2004 - Achieved the highest possible rating for commercial and defense industry practices for software, attaining a CMMI(r) Level 5 maturity rating.
2004 - High-Energy Laser destroys in-flight large-caliber rockets and multiple morter rounds in history-making tests.
2004 - Aura Earth Observing System launched and successfully provides the most comprehensive space-based measurements of atmospheric gases ever taken.
2003 - Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, MIT and Northrop Grumman awarded Marshall Space Flight Center's Public Service Group Achievement Award for Chandra X-Ray Observatory Mission Planning and Review Team.
2003 - Northrop Grumman inducted into Space Technology Hall of Fame's "Class of 2003" for the development of a new class of integrated circuits which enabled a new generation of cell phones and other wireless products.
2003 - NASA/Northrop Grumman team awarded the National Space Club's Nelson P. Jackson Aerospace Award.
2003 - Awarded the NASA Public Service Group Achievement Award for work on the Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES)
2002 - Northrop Grumman-built Aqua wins Popular Science magazine's award for "Best of What's New" in Aviation and Space.
2002 - First high-energy laser to shoot down an artillery projectile in flight.
2001 - Northrop Grumman-built Hyperion is NASA's first hyperspectral imager to become operational on-orbit.
2001 - NASA/Northrop Grumman team wins National Space Club Award for Chandra X-ray Observatory
2000 - The Tactical High Energy Laser is the first system to repeatedly detect, track and destroy salvos of rockets fired in succession.
1999 - The Northrop Grumman-built Chandra X-ray Observatory reveals a wealth of new discoveries, including some of the most distant objects ever seen in the universe.
1999 - Developed the world's fastest digital integrated circuit: a 69 GHz frequency divider fabricated using indium phosphide
1996 - First armed short-range rocket shot down in flight by a Northrop Grumman laser
1995 - Northrop Grumman-built Pioneer 6 records 30 years in space as world's oldest operating spacecraft.
1994 - First launch of Milstar, next generation of military communications satellites, for which a Northrop Grumman-led team provided the low-data-rate communications payload
1991 - Northrop Grumman built Compton Gamma Ray Observatory launched from Space Shuttle to study high-energy celestial phenomena such as solar flares, gamma-ray bursts and pulsars
1989 - Produced VHSIC SuperChip, the world's first self-repairing electronic device
1989 - Designed millimeter/microwave monolithic integrated circuit chip
1983 - Pioneer 10, launched in 1972, is first manmade object to leave the solar system.
1973 - The first high-energy laser
1971 - Designed DSCS II, a global military communications network
1969 - Intelsat III, the first global commercial communication satellite system
1965 - Supplied lunar module descent engines for Apollo moon-landing missions
1958 - Pioneer 1 became the first spacecraft built by an industrial contractor
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