Northrop Grumman Corp. acquired privately held aerospace company Scaled Composites LLC, the builder of the first successful privately funded and manned spaceship.

The July 5 acquisition was reported over the weekend and still requires approval from the U.S. Justice Department. Scaled Composites has teamed with Northrop recently to research and design unmanned aerial vehicles.

The Los Angeles defense contractor, which already owned 40 percent of the privately held Mojave company, did not disclose terms of the deal.

Scaled Composites was started by aerospace engineer Burt Rutan and received national attention in 2004 when the company sent SpaceShipOne along with a pilot into suborbital space three separate times.

Rutan had previously garnered attention for his design of the record-breaking Voyager, which was the first plane to fly around the world without stopping or refueling.

Shares in Northrop closed up $1.38, or 1.8 percent, to $79.08 in trading Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.