Lockheed Martin Wins Contract to Build Orion Spaceship
US space agency Nasa has chosen Lockheed Martin to build its new manned exploration craft Orion. The vehicle is being developed to take human space explorers back to the Moon and potentially then on to Mars.
Lockheed Martin won the contract in competition against a joint bid from Northrop Grumman and Boeing.
Its first manned flight - to the International Space Station - will take place no later than 2014 and its first flight to the Moon no later than 2020.
Orion is named after one of the brightest, most familiar and easily identifiable constellations of stars in the sky.
It will be 5m (16.5ft) in diameter and have a mass of about 25 tonnes. Inside, it will have more than 2.5 times the volume of an Apollo capsule.
The spacecraft will return humans to the Moon to stay for long periods as a testing ground for the longer journey to Mars.
Reliable shape
The vehicle will be capable of transporting cargo and up to six crew members to and from the International Space Station. It can carry four astronauts for lunar missions. Later, it is expected to support crew transfers for Mars missions.
Orion borrows its shape from the Apollo capsules of the past, but Nasa says giant leaps have since been made in computer technology, electronics, life support, propulsion and heat protection systems.
Nasa considers the capsule’s conical shape to be the safest and most reliable for re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere, especially at the velocities required for a direct return from the Moon.
The crew exploration vehicle will replace the space shuttle programme after it comes out of service in 2010.
Earlier this summer, Nasa announced the names of the rockets that will propel into orbit the crew exploration vehicle and a cargo vehicle. These launchers will be called Ares I and Ares V respectively.
Read the official press release
Read the news from NASA
September 1st, 2006 at 6:15 am
I’m the first to comment here?…
Congratulations!!!
We’ll look forward with expectations.