GEM 63XL
GEM 63XL is Northrop Grumman’s extended 63-inch graphite-epoxy booster for Vulcan Centaur. Qualified in 2021, it first flew on Vulcan’s January 2024 Cert-1 mission. The 2025 sheet specifies 21.95 m total length, 1.60 m motor diameter, 87.3 s burn time and 463,249 lbf maximum thrust. Loaded mass is 53,400 kg, including 48,000 kg propellant. Its single-cast motor shares the common GEM 63 development heritage.
Identity
- Domains
- spaceflight
- Identity Level
- variant
- Kind
- solid-rocket-motor
- Name
- GEM 63XL
- Status
- active
Details
- Description
- GEM 63XL is Northrop Grumman’s extended 63-inch graphite-epoxy booster for Vulcan Centaur. Qualified in 2021, it first flew on Vulcan’s January 2024 Cert-1 mission. The 2025 sheet specifies 21.95 m total length, 1.60 m motor diameter, 87.3 s burn time and 463,249 lbf maximum thrust. Loaded mass is 53,400 kg, including 48,000 kg propellant. Its single-cast motor shares the common GEM 63 development heritage.
- Developers
- Family
- Length
- …
- Lineage
- Note
- GEM 63XL is the extended-length member of the common 63-inch GEM generation.
- Related Propulsion System
- Relationship
- direct-derivative-of
- Sources
- Accessed Date
- 2026-07-29
- Publisher
- Northrop Grumman
- Title
- GEM 63 and GEM 63XL
- Manufacturers
- Rocket Specs
- Burn Time
- …
Links
Assets & Meta
- Creation Time
- July 29, 2026 at 08:34:22 UTC
- Updated Time
- October 29, 2026 at 15:55:41 UTC
Other
- Diameter
- …
- Sources
- Accessed Date
- 2026-07-29
- Publisher
- Northrop Grumman
- Title
- GEM 63 and GEM 63XL
- Accessed Date
- 2026-10-29
- Note
- Page 2 table visually inspected. Total length, motor diameter and burn time; masses are loaded, thrust is maximum with ambient condition unspecified. No dry mass or nominal/vacuum thrust inferred.
- Publisher
- Northrop Grumman
- Title
- GEM 63 and GEM 63XL — 2025 product sheet