Lockheed lands contract for next trip to the moon
Northrop/Boeing team falls short in race to build `Apollo on steroids.'
By Seth Borenstein, Associated Press



WASHINGTON - NASA's newest lunar spaceship will look like and operate like an old Apollo capsule. But in hiring a new builder of the Apollo-like ship, the nation's space agency passed over the companies that made the original capsule and lunar lander.
NASA on Thursday gave a multibillion dollar contract to an aerospace rival, Lockheed Martin Corp., to build a ship to send astronauts back to the moon and maybe on to Mars.

Unlike Apollo and earlier spacecraft perched atop rockets, the Orion crew exploration vehicle will be reusable. NASA estimated the cost at $7.5 billion through 2019 for likely eight separate spaceships to replace its shuttle fleet. NASA's chief described Orion as "Apollo on steroids."

The only other competitor for the contract was a team made up of Northrop Grumman Corp., the world's largest shipbuilder and third-largest military contractor, and Boeing Co.

Boeing's space exploration division develops reusable and human space systems and services and is a part of the company's overall Integrated Defense Systems with offices and operations in Texas, Florida, Alabama and throughout Southern California, including facilities in Long Beach, Seal Beach, Orange County and Los Angeles County.

The last time NASA awarded a manned spaceship contract to Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, Md., was in 1996 for a spaceplane that was supposed to replace the space shuttle. NASA spent $912 million and the ship, called X-33, never got built because of technical problems.

Lockheed Martin Vice President John Karas said his company will succeed with Orion compared to its failure with X-33, because "we're not shooting as far. ... I'd say it (Orion) is within reach."

While Orion won't break much new technological ground, Karas said Lockheed is pleased because of where Orion is going: "For me it's about exploring; it's about adventure. It's great to be with NASA and go out and explore."

When asked why Lockheed Martin was chosen over the competing team, Doug Cooke, a deputy associate administrator with Northrup said his team had an "achievable design."

"This is a design that is based on known capabilities. We know that this can be built so there are some differences there, perhaps."

Although all of NASA's 10 centers will provide engineering support on Orion, the majority of the work will be at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and final assembly will be completed at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Lockheed Martin spokeswoman Joan Underwood said the Orion project will create about 2,300 new jobs: some 1,200 in Houston; 600 in Colorado, 300 in Florida and 200 in Louisiana.

NASA bypassed Apollo throwbacks Northrop Grumman of Los Angeles and its chief subcontractor Boeing of Chicago. Northrop Grumman predecessor built the Apollo lunar lander. Companies bought by Boeing built the Apollo, Gemini, and Mercury capsules, Skylab and the space shuttle.

"NASA decided to do something different and go with a company that has not been in manned space before, sort of spreading the wealth and making sure they've got two contractors that know the manned space business," said aerospace industry analyst Paul Nisbet, president of JSA Research.

Lockheed Martin built several unmanned probes, including: 1998's Lunar Prospector; 1976 Viking probes of Mars; Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which entered the red planet's orbit earlier this year; and the 1999 Mars Climate Orbiter, which crashed because of a Lockheed Martin/NASA mismatching of metric and English measurement units.

The California Space Authority said the NASA contract will mean critical jobs to a state aerospace industry that has seen better days.

"As the prime contractor, Lockheed Martin will



subcontract with many California companies and organizations," said authority executive director Andrea Seastrand.

"These subcontracts will significantly enhance the space enterprise community within California. They will foster new jobs, create new technology and build upon existing relationships within the state and the nation," she said.

The authority is a statewide nonprofit corporation focused on retaining and increasing new space industry jobs.

Earlier in August, NASA chose El Segundo-based Space Exploration Technologies Inc., also known as SpaceX, as part of a team to work on ways to deliver cargo to the International Space Station.

The contract agreement also could include future expansion to develop ways to transport crew to and from the space station.

Heading the SpaceX team making a bid for the NASA work was former Sea Launch Co. LLC CEO and general manager, Jim Maser.

Maser several months ago jumped to SpaceX from Sea Launch in Long Beach specifically for the chance to develop a cargo transportation system and win the NASA contract.

SpaceX teammates for the cargo system include ARES Corp., MDA Federal Inc., Odyssey Space Research L.L.C., Paragon Space Development Corp., and SPACEHAB, Inc.

Before the Thursday announcement about the Orion project, Lockheed Martin released few details about its proposal. Their plan was heavily open-ended, allowing NASA the ultimate decision on reusability of Orion and landing sites.

Lockheed Martin's initial proposal was vastly different from what NASA wanted. Its first submission looked more like the since-abandoned X-33 spaceplane and less like a capsule. NASA told Lockheed Martin it wanted an Apollo-like capsule, so the company changed its proposal.

If all goes well, the first test flight of Orion will be September 2014 and astronauts could return to the moon by late 2019 or 2020, NASA estimates. Karas said, if asked, his company could make the first flight in 2013.

Orion will be the Apollo capsule-like replacement for the 25-year-old space shuttle fleet that is supposed to retire in four years, after completion of the international space station.

"Space is no longer going to be a destination that we visit briefly," NASA associate administrator Scott Horowitz said Thursday. "We're going to learn to live off the land like the pioneers did."

This is hardly the first time NASA has made a big deal over a next-generation spaceship. Since the 1980s, NASA has spent about $4.8 billion on shuttle follow-up ships that never were built, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the independent auditing arm of Congress.

This time it's different, NASA claims. That's because after the Columbia accident in 2003, President Bush proposed a massive exploration plan. It would put astronauts on the moon for the first time since 1972, with plans for a home base. The plan also would ultimately send people to Mars.

Associated Press writer Mike Schneider in Cape Canaveral, Fla., and Press-Telegram reporter Felix Sanchez contributed to this report. Felix Sanchez can be reached at felixsanchez@ presstelegram.com or (562) 499-1297.


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