Northrop Grumman announced on April 21 that it had to take a $71 million financial hit in its fiscal first quarter, a charge it charmingly termed an "unfavorable adjustment." This delightful accounting euphemism is linked to a problem with a solid rocket booster that has, as one does, grounded the Vulcan Centaur rocket.

The issue involves the GEM 63XL booster, which Northrop makes for United Launch Alliance's Vulcan. During a February 12 launch, one of four boosters decided to shed some debris about 65 seconds after liftoff. ULA initially called this an "observation," which is a wonderfully understated way to describe a rocket part disassembling itself mid-flight. Despite this, the USSF-87 mission was a success, delivering its payload to geosynchronous orbit.

ULA later upgraded the incident to a "significant performance anomaly" and grounded the Vulcan for investigation. Northrop's official statement and its executives offered no further details, but the company's 10-Q filing with the SEC on April 21 confirmed the $71 million charge was for "the evaluation and implementation of corrective actions" for the anomaly.

Space Force officials, speaking at the recent 41st Space Symposium, said there's no timeline for Vulcan's return to flight. They are working with Northrop and ULA to find the root cause, with some "test activities" planned. In a move that screams 'Plan B,' the Space Force is considering flying Vulcan without any GEM 63XL boosters for low-energy missions that don't need the extra thrust, like certain Space Development Agency satellite launches.

Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant, head of Space Systems Command, summed up the logic: "If it doesn’t rely on solids, there’s no reason why we can’t launch." This marks the second issue with a GEM 63XL in four Vulcan missions. A previous flight in October 2024 saw a booster nozzle detach, which was blamed on a manufacturing defect and led to a redesign. ULA's acting CEO, John Elbon, had confidently stated those fixes were "complete and behind us" just before the February launch that prompted this new $71 million souvenir.