Lockheed Martin Corp. won a multi-billion dollar contract from NASA today to build Orion, the next generation spacecraft that will visit the moon and – if all goes well – Mars.
“This is certainly a historic time for NASA, the space program and for our country,” said Doug Cooke, NASA Exploration deputy associate administrator.
An estimated 300 engineering jobs will be created at Lockheed Space Systems in Jefferson County. Much of the Orion vehicle engineering work will be done by Lockheed at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, with final assembly at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
“We are honored by the trust that NASA has placed in the Lockheed Martin team for this historic and vital step forward in human space exploration,” said Bob Stevens, chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer of Lockheed Martin Corporation.”Our entire team is fully committed to supporting NASA as we join together to help make the vision for space exploration a reality.”
The first Orion launch with humans onboard is planned by 2014, with a human moon landing no later than 2020, according to NASA.
Lockheed, based in Bethesda, Md., beat out a team from Northrop Grumman and Boeing for the work.
Lockheed Martin is the largest defense contractor in the nation and state. The company employs 10,000 people in Colorado, about half of them at Lockheed’s Space Systems Company in Jefferson County.
Lockheed is responsible for the design, development, testing, and evaluation of the new spacecraft, a contract valued at $3.9 billion through September
2013. Spacecraft delivery orders could begin as early as 2009 through 2019, with a cost not to exceed $3.5 billion. Other engineering work could be valued at $750 million, if all options are exercised.
From 2001 to 2005, the Department of Defense spent $4.3 billion on contract work done by Lockheed’s Colorado workforce, according to an analysis of Defense Department data by The Denver Post.
During that span, Lockheed’s Colorado operations received hundreds of contract awards, the bulk of them classified as top secret for national security reasons.
