Northrop Grumman Corporation announced August 24 that it has completed a transaction that increases its ownership in the Mojave, California-based Scaled Composites, LLC from roughly 40 percent to 100 percent.

The mega-aerospace company agreed July 5 to increase its stake in Scaled Composites - the builder of the X Prize-winning SpaceShipOne and an array of record-breaking aircraft.

Scaled Composites is led by aerospace designer, Burt Rutan, with his enterprise busy at work on SpaceShipTwo - a passenger-carrying suborbital spaceliner. That company suffered a setback in its work on SpaceShipTwo’s propulsion system when a July 26 explosion at the Mojave Air and Space Port left three dead and other workers injured.

The Scaled family is honoring their fallen heroes and has vowed to “find greater ways to commemorate them as the SpaceShipTwo program continues to unfold and other space-oriented initiatives are developed,” explains the Scaled Composites website.