X-Bow Completest Historic Test of Industry's Largest Additively Manufactured Rocket Motor

August 5, 2024

X-Bow completed the successful static test of X-Bow's Ballesta-34 solid rocket motor. (Image: X-Bow Systems)

X-Bow Systems Inc. (pronounced "/crossbow/"), completed the successful static test of the Ballesta-34 solid rocket motor, nicknamed the XB-32. At ~34 inches in diameter, X-Bow's XB-32 is the world's largest advanced manufactured solid propellant motor fired to date with its patented manufacturing technology. This groundbreaking achievement not only marks a significant technological milestone in X-Bow's Advanced Manufactured Solid Propellant (AMSP) process, but also represents a significant step forward in the industry's use of additive and advanced manufacturing for both strategic and tactical sized propulsion systems.

The successful static fire validates the scaling feature of AMSP. X-Bow has previously manufactured and tested hundreds of smaller tactical sized motors. The XB-32 is part of the larger Ballesta family of Solid Rocket Motors (SRMs), a modular motor platform designed for use as both first stage and second-stage boosters in government and commercial launch systems. X-Bow now joins the likes of Northrop Grumman and L3 Harris as the only other U.S. companies producing strategic class solid rocket motors. X-Bow is the only company to use and test fire a strategic class SRM with a revolutionary affordable advanced manufacturing system.

"The success of this test is a monumental milestone for X-Bow that validates the viability of our advanced manufacturing technology as it has now scaled from 2 inch diameter to 30 inch plus diameter, proving the applicability of X-Bow's industry-changing process to meet a rapidly growing SRM demand," said Jill Marsh, X-Bow VP of Advanced Manufacturing and Operations.

To quote Chief Engineer Matthew Hinton, "X-Bow's AMSP technology offers significant advantages in throughput, safety, efficiency, and production cost over traditional propellant manufacturing methods. It is an extremely versatile, customizable, and scalable method of producing solid rocket motor propellant."

The results yielded from the test align within the predicted margin of error with X-Bow's models, verifying the accuracy and predictability of its AMSP manufactured motors. With these results, X-Bow is now rapidly moving to its planned flight demonstration of the AMSP technology in the coming months. The propellant grain for this ground-breaking test fire was produced in X-Bow's New Mexico Tech University hosted R&D facilities in Socorro, New Mexico. This test also marked the 150th energetics test at X-Bow's Luling Texas SRM giga-campus.

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