Lockheed Martin and its subcontractors on the next-generation spacecraft Orion could be forced to slow down or stop work this spring, according to Space News.
Citing congressional sources, the space publication Monday said Lockheed Martin may try to save enough money to cover the cost of an official shutdown, which could come as early as this fall.
Lockheed Martin Space Systems, based in south Jefferson County, is the prime contractor for the $8 billion Orion crew exploration vehicle.
Nearly 4,000 people, including 600 local Lockheed workers, and more than 100 companies in 28 states are working on Orion.
Planned as a successor to the aging space shuttle, Orion is part of NASA’s Constellation program to take humans back to the moon by 2020.
George Torres, spokesman for Minneapolis-based Alliant TechSystems, which has a contract for the main stage of the Ares 1 rocket that is to take Orion aloft, said of the report: “This is developing. I don’t have an answer for you.”
Under President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2011 budget proposal, the Constellation program would be ended in 2011 and funds would be diverted to commercial human-spaceflight efforts. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has asked Congress for $2.5 billion to close the program.
Space-agency officials said it is not known whether the money is enough to cover the government’s and contractors’ expenses if NASA officially orders the shutdown.
Congress, which is charged with approving the budget, has been holding hearings on the Constellation program proposal. Several dozen, including U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., signed a letter to NASA expressing “strong concern” about ending the program.
