From orbiting around the world to a spot on the White House’s wall, one American flag has had quite a journey.
Vice President Mike Pence was presented with a flag originally flown during the after he finished a tour of Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Jefferson County on Thursday.
“America is going to lead in space once again,” Pence said to a corralled pool of national and local media after receiving the gift from Lockheed President and CEO Marillyn Hewson.
Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin held on as the No.1 recipient of government contracts in 2016, receiving $43 billion, according to . The c, 4,000 of whom are based out of the Jefferson County facility.
Pence, who came to Colorado to speak at a Republican party fundraiser Thursday night, and Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson were greeted by Hewson and other top Lockheed execs in the regimented tour.
During the tour, Pence took a peek at NASA’s InSight Mars lander, , before its May 5 launch date. While checking out the , Wilson threw on a VR headset and carefully walked around a virtual Mars orbiter that is part of the company’s concept for an eventual Mars base camp. Then the two donned coats to explore the , taking a look at an Air Force-cleared satellite that should be launched next year.
Pence signed a piece of thermal blanketing that will be put on a satellite before heading off into space. He gave the lined-up crew of engineers a thumbs-up before posing for a picture and shaking their hands.
. shakes hands with CEO Marillyn Hewson and checks out the InSight Mars lander during a Colorado visit
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Pence heads the White House’s National Space Council, which held its first meeting this month. Hewson was among the business leaders who were invited to speak. Beyond Pence, the council includes several high-ranking Cabinet and agency officials, signaling an interest in space programs from the Trump Administration.
Matt Kramer, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin Space Systems, said the company was honored by the vice president’s visit and appreciated the Trump Administration’s vision to secure America’s lead in space.
“(Lockheed is) ready to do what we can to help the administration achieve its goal,” Kramer said.
In the company’s third-quarter earnings call, Hewson urged Congress to adopt a new defense budget in the final National Defense Authorization Act. A continuing resolution for fiscal year 2018 limits the Department of Defense spending to the previous fiscal year levels through Dec. 8.
Most of the 2017 orders are already funded and would not be affected, Hewson said. But if the budget constraints continued past Dec. 8, the CEO warned that 2018 orders would be impacted.
“We continue to urge our lawmakers to work toward an agreement, which modifies the budget caps, provides the defense funding required to capitalize our military assets and delivers to our military the resources vital to our nation’s security,” Hewson said during the call.
The Trump Administration proposed a $575 billion defense budget. The House passed a base defense budget of $593 billion while the Senate passed one of $611 billion. The two need to be consolidated but will exceed the current budget caps, requiring legislation to adjust spending limits.
Lockheed Martin missed its quarterly profit estimates for the second time this year. , with profit dropping 52 percent to $218 million. The year-over-year drop is due largely to a one-time $127 million jump in profits in third quarter of 2016 as the company had an increased stake in AWE, which manages nuclear missile systems in the United Kingdom.
Lockheed Martin attributed the rest of the decline to where the company is in the production cycle and to reduced profits from its joint venture United Launch Alliance, a rocketmaker based in Centennial.