Colorado could reap more than $500 million in economic benefits over the next seven years as a result of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co.’s new contract to build the space shuttle’s replacement.
Lockheed said Thursday that the contract will create as many as 450 jobs.
The company has told Colorado officials that jobs will have an average annual salary of $70,000, said Jeff Holwell, an official with the state’s Office of Economic Development and International Trade. The bulk of those jobs will be in engineering and research and development.
The company is also retaining 150 employees already working on the project.
Each new job will indirectly create two to three other jobs, said Preston Gibson, president of the Jefferson Economic Council.
Gibson estimated that both direct and indirect jobs will generate at least $50 million a year in wages.
Including the 150 existing jobs that will be retained, the contract will generate at least $500 million in salary over the first seven years of the contract, according to estimates.
Additionally, Lockheed plans to spend $50 million in capital investments and issue $30 million in subcontracts to companies in Colorado, Holwell said.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said initial design, development, testing and evaluation work will start next week and run through 2013.
Economic-development officials stressed that winning the Orion project – as the new spacecraft is called – goes beyond the jobs.
“This is the last manned-spaceflight vehicle for our generation, and the engineering is going to be done in Jefferson County,” Gibson said. “It’s a contract that is not just your standard run- of-the-mill win.”
The first Orion launch with people on board is planned for no later than 2014, NASA said. The craft is expected to send a human to the moon by 2020.
“Given the nature of Orion, it’s much more far-reaching than the jobs and the wages,” said Tom Clark, executive vice president of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp. “It’s really about your position long term as a dominant player in this industry.”
Colorado ranks third in the nation in private aerospace employment, with 24,300 jobs, according to the Metro EDC.
Staff writer Andy Vuong can be reached at 303-954-1209 or avuong@denverpost.com.
