Orbital is a subcontractor to The Boeing Company for the design, development and testing of a boost vehicle for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's (MDA) Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) program, formerly known as the National Missile Defense (NMD) program. The Orbital Boost Vehicle (OBV) is a silo-launched, three-stage rocket derived from our proven Pegasus, Taurus and Minotaur space launch boosters. OBV is designed to carry advanced kinetic-energy interceptors that will locate and destroy long-range hostile missiles in midcourse flight, defending against potential nuclear, chemical or biological weapons of mass destruction.
Under the contract, Orbital has modified Pegasus, Taurus and Minotaur system designs and has verified the resulting GMD booster's performance and operational features in a series of test flights. The Company is now manufacturing boosters for deployment in Alaska and California as well as for continued test flights.
Because Orbital's OBV design is based on our highly successful lineage of space launch vehicles, it enjoys several advantages that make it an affordable, low-risk solution for the ballistic missile defense:
20+ years of boost vehicle experience
100% use of commercial motors with proven track records
Low costs associated with shared hardware
Based on proven commercial and government launch systems
