AI-driven propulsion design advances spacecraft engineering at Northrop Grumman

Written by Copernical Team Wednesday, 29 October 2025 04:56

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Los Angeles CA (SPX) Oct 29, 2025

Northrop Grumman Corporation and Luminary Cloud are working together to apply artificial intelligence to spacecraft propulsion, implementing a new physics AI foundation model specifically for thruster nozzle design. The collaboration leverages Northrop Grumman's expertise in propulsion physics and Luminary Cloud's AI platform with NVIDIA's support to enable rapid hardware development for spacecr

AI-driven propulsion design advances spacecraft engineering at Northrop Grumman
by Clarence Oxford
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Oct 29, 2025

Northrop Grumman Corporation and Luminary Cloud are working together to apply artificial intelligence to spacecraft propulsion, implementing a new physics AI foundation model specifically for thruster nozzle design. The collaboration leverages Northrop Grumman's expertise in propulsion physics and Luminary Cloud's AI platform with NVIDIA's support to enable rapid hardware development for spacecraft.

Han Park, vice president of artificial intelligence integration at Northrop Grumman Space Systems, stated, "Physics AI is the next level of complexity in AI and Northrop Grumman is bringing this technology to our design engineers to dramatically speed up hardware development. Using AI to make something small, like a spacecraft thruster, puts us on a path to do much bigger things, like using AI to design larger components or even an entire spacecraft."

Through Luminary Cloud's Physics AI platform and NVIDIA's Computer Aided Engineering resources, Northrop Grumman seeks to produce higher-performing spacecraft thruster nozzles and accelerate the optimization process for advanced space systems. NVIDIA's Tim Costa said, "Northrop Grumman has demonstrated the power of NVIDIA's accelerated computing by using Luminary Cloud's Physics AI platform to build and deploy a model for rapid thruster nozzle design optimization."

Northrop Grumman, Luminary Cloud, and NVIDIA are further developing AI-driven solutions in space technology, aiming to optimize propulsion hardware and lay the groundwork for future spacecraft design. This initiative maintains Northrop Grumman's role in progressing digital transformation for advanced aerospace and defense engineering.