Advanced Manufactured Solid Rocket Motor Completes Latest Flight Test

October 28, 2024

X-Bow completed the Commercial Mission-1 (CM-1) flight of its advanced manufactured solid rocket motor. (Image: X-Bow)

X-Bow Systems Inc. (X-Bow) announced the third flight of its Bolt Rocket. The XB-32 motor, part of X-Bow's Bolt rocket family, is the largest Advanced Manufactured Solid Propellant (AMSP) motor ever flown, utilizing the company's patented advanced manufacturing technology. This milestone confirms the scalability and effectiveness of X-Bow's approach, demonstrating that affordable, large-scale production of SRMs is achievable.

The Commercial Mission-1 (CM-1) flight successfully gathered critical data for pre- and post-flight analysis, validating the motor's performance and confirming X-Bow's ability to accurately predict SRM characteristics. The fully in-house designed, developed, and operated Bolt rocket family will have multiple upcoming missions, in partnership with Los Alamos National Labs.

Sponsored by the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and US Army Space and Missile Defense Command and with further support from Redwire, New Mexico Tech, DARPA, and Air Force Research Labs, this mission represents a new era of options for both commercial and defense contractors in SRM manufacturing. X-Bow's innovative 'digital-twin' technology and modular SRM production allow customers to tailor SRM performance to specific mission needs, providing unmatched flexibility compared to traditional single-point designs. This capability positions X-Bow as a leader in an industry where capacity and development constraints often limit new entrants.

"This successful launch validates our commitment to advanced manufacturing of energetics. Unlike traditional methods, X-Bow's patented technology allows us to design, produce, and test SRMs with unprecedented speed, precision and scalability. Today's flight test used 10–20 tactical SRMs worth of propellant, all manufactured here in New Mexico through our partnership with New Mexico Tech's Energetics Material Research Test Center," Jason Hundley, X-Bow CEO said in an Oct. 22 press release. "We have seen how the Cold War-era model of development, production, and stockpiling—coupled with over-consolidation in the industrial base—has left the U.S. and its allies unprepared for the demands of rapid scaling, production, and innovation. At X-Bow, we're addressing this by building the nation's second-largest SRM factory, completing it in a fraction of the time and cost compared to traditional capabilities. We are the only company today, with a flight-validated manufacturing process, adding significant new capacity for SRM production for the U.S. and its allies."

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