Shares of Lockheed Martin Corp Friday climbed on news of a consortium led by the defense contracting giant having won a contract from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

The contract to design, develop and build the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle, the human spacecraft aimed at replacing the space shuttle. The contract won by the consortium, which also includes Honeywell International Inc and Orbital Sciences Corp, is expected to last through 2013, is estimated to be valued at almost $4 billion. The group led by Lockheed Martin beat a joint bid from The Boeing Co and Northrop Grumman to win the NASA contract. Lockheed Martin’s share price rose $1.06, or 1.28%, to $83.66 at 2:57pm ET on the NYSE on Friday.

NASA recently completed a series of tests that will aid in the design and development of a parachute recovery system for the rocket and capsule that will return astronauts to the moon and later support missions to Mars. The system will be used for the first stage booster of the Ares I crew launch vehicle and for Orion, the new crew exploration vehicle.

NASA and industry engineers traveled to the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz. to conduct drop tests of the two parachute systems during the week of Aug. 14.

The Ares I tests collected performance data on a pilot parachute, the first to be unfurled in a three-stage recovery system NASA is developing for the rocket’s first stage. The system includes a pilot, drogue and three main parachutes. The system is derived from the space shuttle’s solid rocket booster recovery system. The pilot chute, 11.5 feet in diameter, was packed and mounted inside a 1,500-pound drop test vehicle. Instruments and a recorder were mounted inside the test vehicle to capture data on the speed, weight on the parachute lines and pressure during descent from an altitude of 10,000 feet.

The Ares I first stage booster Recovery System Development Test Program is a two-year effort. Six additional pilot parachute tests will be conducted through 2008. Tests are also planned for the drogue and main parachutes.

The Orion crew exploration vehicle parachute tests demonstrated a three-stage main parachute deployment sequence. Data gathered during this test will help designers ensure that their computer models accurately predict the way the parachutes will behave.

The parachute recovery system for Orion will be similar to the system used for Apollo command module landings and include two drogue, three pilot and three main parachutes.

The Orion test parachute unfurled in three stages until its maximum diameter was achieved, demonstrating a technique to avoid undue stress on the crew capsule as it descends through the atmosphere. The parachute design promotes quicker inflation and strengthens its canopy with a vent hoop to increase the amount of mass it can handle. The Orion test parachute was dropped from an altitude of 8,000 feet.

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., is responsible for project management of the Ares I first stage and leads the design and development of the solid rocket booster recovery system. ATK Launch Systems, Brigham City, Utah, is the prime contractor for the first stage booster. ATK’s subcontractor, United Space Alliance, Houston, is responsible for the design, development and test of the parachutes at their facilities at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla. The Johnson Space Center, Houston, hosts the Constellation Program and Orion Project Office and provides test instrumentation and support personnel. Yuma Proving Ground is providing the test range; support facilities and equipment.

Marshall Space Flight Center’s Danny Davis, manager of the Upper Stage of the new Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle, has given a fascinating inside overview of the vehicle that will transport Lockheed Martin’s Orion.

Question: Could you please give us an outline of your role?

Davis: I manage the Ares I Upper Stage Element Office. The Upper Stage is an integral part of the Ares I launch vehicle that provides the second stage of flight for delivery of the Orion vehicle to low earth orbit.

My office is responsible for development of the stage requirements, stage design, verification of the design, fabrication and assembly, and support to operations at KSC. My role is to staff the management team that oversees all facets of the development process. As a team, we arrange for the appropriate engineering work force and budget to get the job done. We continually conduct assessment of the technical progress and risk management, and provide feedback to the ELO project office.

Question: What are your responsibilities?

Davis: I manage the NASA Design Team that is responsible for design of the stage. I develop the required budget and schedule to complete the project, determine risk to our success and report progress and issues to the ELO management. I am responsible for completing the mission within budget and on schedule. I am also responsible for the acquisition strategy to be used to purchase the need resources and products for the mission.

Question: What group(s) of people do you manage?

Davis: I manage the Element Office staff that sets the policy and plans for US development. I have a partnership with NASA Engineering at MSFC and other centers. The NASA Design Team is comprised of NASA engineering resources at NASA several Centers including their in-house support contractors. The NASA Design Team is formed into Integrated Product Teams that are allocated full responsibility for development of their specific subsystems. An example is the team we have established for Avionics and Software. The Avionics and Software IPT is responsible for developing all detailed avionics requirements, hardware and software design, testing and procurements and mission support to the flight systems.

We also plan to incorporate the Production Contractor in the IPTs early in the development process to ensure the NASA design is easy to manufacture and operate and to ultimately fabricate, check out and deliver the flight hardware. We plan on issuing a competitive RFP in early 2007 for our upperstage production partner and later in the year for our instrument unit production partner.

Question: Who do you report to?

Davis: I report to the Exploration Project Office at MSFC, directed by Steve Cook. ELO is part of the Constellation Program.

Question: What program(s) have you previously been involved with, and what was your area of responsibility in those?

Davis: I managed the RS-84 Prototype Engine Project where I had project management responsibilities similar to my current position. I have managed the Fastrac Engine project which was an in-house development of a 60K thrust LOX – RP-1 engine. These and other development experiences have provide valuable lesson learned for my current assignment.

Ares I Overview

Question: Can you please outline the current status of the overall Ares I development project?

Davis: The Ares I is working toward kicking off its systems requirements review in late October, 2006 – this will result in a set of validated requirements for the Ares I vehicle to which we will begin the preliminary design. The team was stood up in October, 2005 and has made remarkable progress which includes the following:

– NASA team is up and running at several centers, including MSFC, GRC, LaRC, ARC, KSC, SSC and JSC

– Completion of a 1st, full up design analysis cycle on all elements and the stack

– Completion of over 1,400 wind tunnel test runs along with corresponding CFD analyses – including detailed models with protuberances, such as systems tunnels

– Completion of an initial control systems design and validation using 6 DOF dispersed simulations

– Development of a launch availability discrete event simulation – to help drive out costs and increase operability

– Selection of ATK – Launch Systems as the 1st stage partner

– Successful design and initial test of the new 1st stage pilot parachute at the Yuma Proving Ground

– Baselining a common thrust trace for the Ares I 1st stage which will be also used for the Areas V

– Fabrication of new 1st stage nozzle hardware

– Fabrication of the new 1st stage forward section mockup

– Selection of Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne as the upperstage engine partner

– Performance Risk Reduction Testing Initiated on the 40K injector rig for the J-2X engine

– Completion of the J-2X engine preliminary requirements review

– Demonstration of friction stir welding techniques applicable to circumferential welds on the upperstage

– Completion of an initial manufacturing and logistics approach for the upperstage

– Held an open house at the Michoud Assembly Facility to start to educate industry on the capabilities of this facility which will be used for upperstage assembly

– Initiation of the Ares I-1 flight test. This will fly in 2009 and will inform the Ares I design in areas such as 1st stage flight dynamics, roll control, stage separation and stage recovery using new chutes and forward structures and vehicle operations processing at KSC

Question: What are the expected/target performance figures you are working towards achieving with the Ares I?

Davis: Our current requirement is to deliver the Orion to a -30×100 nmi injection orbit (at either 28.5 or 51.6? inc). The performance capability is approximately 55klbm.

The Upper Stage

Question: Can you give us an idea of where you are in the current status of the Upper Stage (U/S) development program?

*************************************************

Mar 2006 DAC-1a – Design Analysis Cycle 1a

Jun 2006 DAC-1b

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Sep 2006 DAC-1c

Jan 2007 SRR – System Requirement Review

Mar 2007 DAC-2

Jun 2007 Contractor Selection

Sep 2007 SDR – System Definition Review

Dec 2007 DAC-3

Mar 2008 PDR – Preliminary Design Review

Jun 2008 DAC-4

Sep 2008 CDR – Critical Design Review

Dec 2008 DAC-5

Mar 2009 DCR – Design Certification Review

************************************************

Davis: Our first priority is to develop requirements for the US design. Our System Requirements Review is scheduled for January 2007. This review approves all the requirements allocated to our stage and the flow-down requirements allocated to each subsystem IPT. To support requirement development we use conceptual designs of the US to show the feasibility of the requirements allocated.

This phase is going well. We have completed the initial Design and Analysis Cycle (DAC) and are confident that the US can meet all the current allocated requirements. We will use the current DAC to fine tune our approach. We have also initiated early development activities for selected long-lead components such as MPS Pre-valve, RCS Thrusters, and selected structural components. Our next step is to test the early develop test components to anchor the design and analysis models.

We have also initiated reliability, maintainability, availability and cost modeling that will be used by the design team to optimize the design – including cost as well as safety and performance.

The other design review dates are still under review, but these dates are reasonable approximations.

Question: Do you have a current specification of the Upper Stage as it stands today in this relatively early phase of the development program?

Davis: We have top level requirements that were based on validated conceptual design models. These have been found to be accurate for early allocation of requirements. Our engineering team is developing more rigorous design and analysis to support trade studies that optimize the US and the Ares I stack. Currently, US is confident we can meet allocated requirements. Allocations may change to optimize for low recurring cost and operability.

Question: Can you describe what are the next major elements of the development program which need to be tackled and give us an idea of where they fit in the above schedule?

Davis: We will continue to validate the feasibility of the allocated requirements and optimize the vehicle. Good requirements are critical to establish before detailed design begins. We will pursue limited advanced development projects to support the critical design phase with test data and analysis.

Question From NASASpaceflight.com member ‘Ed Kyle’: What, in your mind, is the long-pole of the tent, the toughest challenge, for both the U/S development, and also the overall Ares I development effort?

Davis: US intends to use Friction Stir Welding of Aluminum Lithium alloys for all major structures. We are working on welding dome gores and close-outs of circumferential welds. Early lab scale experiments have been very successful but the full scale hardware is the real proof. We are planning the fabrication and test of full scale components to support preliminary and critical design.

Other issues include ensuring the operability and low cost of our design. We are engaging the operators and industry partners early in the process to make sure we understand all lessons learned from Space Shuttle and recent expendable launch system developments. We have to optimize all feature of the Ares I vehicle to derive the best performance and operability.

From the Galveston County Daily News – A day after Lockheed Martin won the bid to build NASA’s next-generation spacecraft, Orion, intriguing real estate speculation began orbiting.

The work to build the shuttle’s successor is expected to create about 1,100 jobs. Numbers fluctuate, but Lockheed Martin Space Operations has more than 1,000 employees in the region and offices at 2625 Bay Area Blvd. Word has it that a new office to house all the new workers is being planned on the site of the recently demolished Clarion Hotel, 1301 NASA Road 1.

Ultimately, NASA is expected to spend $8 billion to build Orion.

Windsor Locks, Conn.-based Hamilton Sundstrand, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp. in Hartford, has been named to a Lockheed Martin-led team selected to develop NASA’s new Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle.

The work is worth several hundred million dollars to Hamilton Sundstrand, according to company officials.

Other companies involved in the Orion project, which aims to build America’s next generation of spacecraft for exploration, include Aerojet General Corp., Honeywell International Inc., Orbital Sciences Corp. and the United Space Alliance, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing Co. which is the prime contractor for the space shuttle program.

Hamilton Sundstrand will provide 13 key systems to the exploration vehicle, including the fire detection and suppression system, carbon monoxide removal/humidity control system, pressure control system, atmospheric monitoring system, cabin air ventilation and potable/cooling water storage.

Hamilton Sundstrand will also support Lockheed Martin as a systems integrator in the development of the new vehicle, integrating the vehicle’s power management and distribution, environmental and life support, actuation, and extra vehicular activity interface systems.

The Orion project, which is estimated to cost $3.4 billion, aims to be ready to carry crew and materials to the International Space Station by 2014 and to the moon and back by 2020.

Development of the vehicle has already begun. Hamilton Sundstrand will sustain production and engineering through 2019, officials said.

Congressman Ken Calvert offered congratulations to the employees of Lockheed Martin today for developing the winning proposal for NASA’s new spacecraft, the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle to be launched on the Ares launch vehicle. The Orion will replace the Space Shuttle which is to be retired in 2010.

“My hat is off to Lockheed Martin for developing the winning design. Both the Northrop Grumman/Boeing and Lockheed Martin teams did a fantastic job and I am confident technology from each will play a role in the final Constellation Launch System. The Orion selection shows that NASA is serious about implementing the Vision for Space Exploration and sending humans to the Moon, Mars and beyond,” said Calvert, who serves as the Chairman of the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee in the House of Representatives.

“Today’s decision comes just two weeks after NASA committed to relying on the entrepreneurial space sector to deliver supplies to the International Space Station (ISS). The Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) will give Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Rocketplane Kistler the chance to prove that private companies can take over some of the more routine aspects of space flight and free up NASA resources for bold exploration missions.”

“Congress recognizes new innovations like the Orion Project need a long-term financial commitment. We now must commit to fully funding NASA at the level specified in the two year authorization passed last year. The current appropriations bill falls about $1 billion short of that goal. I am hopeful that NASA funding will be restored to the level I included in our NASA authorization last year, $17.9 billion.”

We are gearing up for the announcement by NASA today which will name the Orion Contractor.

The United States begins its next step in human space flight with the announcement by NASA on today (Thursday) of a contractor to design and build spaceships to fly to the moon.

Lockheed Martin Corp and a partnership of Northrop Grumman Corp. and Boeing Co are vying for the work, estimated to be worth more than $18 billion over the next decade.

The Orion missions will include flights to the International Space Station, the moon and then Mars.

NASA is marching forward on its plans to go to the moon, Mars and beyond — an agenda enunciated by President Bush as the vision for space exploration in January 2004. One goal of that plan is returning humans to the moon as early as 2015 and no later than 2020.

NASA Administrator Mike Griffin has his multitasking hands full in shaping and implementing the vision strategy — from the ground up: new launch vehicles for crew and cargo, a six-person Crew Exploration Vehicle, as well as looking at the future of international cooperation in putting verve to the vision.

Griffin spoke to Space.com during the 20th Annual Conference on Small Satellites, held here earlier this month at Utah State University.

On Thursday, NASA is set to announce the prime contractor to design, develop and build the Crew Exploration Vehicle — now dubbed Orion — a replacement for the government’s space shuttle. As a system, the CEV will accomplish in many areas what the shuttle offers, Griffin said, but also must fly back and forth between the earth and the moon.

“In later decades, the CEV will be one piece of the Mars architecture. It’s how people will come home from Mars through the atmosphere. So the CEV has some pretty stressing requirements on it,” Griffin explained.

But the ultimate goal of the CEV program is not the creation of new technologies, Griffin warned.

“The CEV is primarily a tool for getting humans up through the atmosphere and back down through the atmosphere. And my goal is to do it as simply and safely as possible.”

What needs to be shaken off is the idea that the U.S. civilian space program is all about flying from Earth’s surface to low Earth orbit, Griffin added.

“The excitement is what we’re going to do at the moon; when we’re going to go to Mars and what we’re going to do there,” he said. “It’s not about the first and last hundred miles.”

Given the vision’s long-term strategy, harmonized with tight budgets, is the quest more of a mission impossible?

“Certainly not,” Griffin responded. “I just keep putting one foot in front of the other and moving forward. And I think that’s the strategy that is going to help us now.”

Griffin said the space agency has enough money to do the core things that it wants to do for exploration and science. “Science is well-funded,” he said; however, “we don’t have enough money to do … things as rapidly as all of us would like.”

Enlisting international partners

Griffin outlined his thoughts on the role of international cooperation within the vision.

“We hope to enlist international partners, to bring some of the elements that we won’t be able to afford to build,” Griffin said. “We don’t have big habitats, laboratories, power stations, things like that for a lunar base. We don’t have them in our budget. We have got transportation ‘to and from’ in our budget.”

The arrangement that NASA’s hoping for would be much like that currently in place for the international space station, Griffin said. But that’s also a pact that has been roundly criticized by the United States’ space station partners in the past.

“The criticism — to put slightly more detail on it — is that America dictated everyone’s role,” he said. “I’m not for exploration dictating anyone’s role except America’s. I’m saying this is what the United States will do.”

There are a myriad of other things that international partners or commercial entities could bring to the vision table, Griffin suggested, such as launching robotic cargo landers on Europe’s Ariane 5 to deliver scientific instruments and telescopes to the moon.

“We will be very receptive to that. But I’m not prescribing any of them. And I’ve been very clear about that,” Griffin added. “The role of international cooperation is not to help figure out what the United States will spend its money on.”

Three days from home

Griffin was blunt about NASA’s need to rekindle its engineering might to return humans to the moon — a repeat feat done in 1969 through 1972.

“People seem to have an attitude that because people two generations ago went to the moon, that we have all that experience, that we have the equipment just waiting in reserve. We don’t. We don’t have the equipment. We don’t have the tooling. In some cases, we don’t even have the basic technology any more. And we certainly don’t have the experience base in the people for spaceflight beyond low Earth orbit,” Griffin observed.

Before NASA can send an expedition to Mars, the space agency needs to re-create that full infrastructure, Griffin said. “And the place to apply it is at the moon, when you’re three days from home.”

In looking outward beyond the moon, Griffin said he envisions Mars as a human destination for the United States in the mid-2020s or beyond.

“I don’t think anybody thinks that 2025 or beyond is unrealistic. You could go to Mars sooner if we didn’t have a policy that says we’re doing other things. But our nation’s space policy says that we will finish the space station (and) that we will return to the moon. So if you’re going to do those things, then Mars is going to have to wait a bit. It’s a fiscal matter more than it is a technical matter,” Griffin concluded.

NASA will start converting Kennedy Space Center into a moonport in the spring of 2008, and a new rocket that will launch U.S. astronauts on lunar missions will be test-flown at a modified shuttle pad a year later.

What’s more, the agency on Thursday plans to announce the winner of a multibillion-dollar contract to build a new Apollo-style space capsule that astronauts will fly to the moon.

The bidders: Lockheed Martin and a Northrup Grumman-Boeing team.

“We’re in the final stages now of making that contractor selection,” NASA program manager Skip Hatfield said. “And we’re looking forward to getting that contractor on board with us as we continue our journey on into exploration.”

Dubbed Orion, the new space capsule will carry crews of six to the International Space Station and four on missions to the moon and Mars.

The crew transport will replace  ASA’s space shuttle orbiter.

Its first piloted mission now is scheduled for September 2014 — four years after the agency retires its shuttle fleet.

NASA also is building two new launch systems — Ares 1 and Ares 5.

A more powerful version of the shuttle’s solid rocket booster with a single-engine upper stage, the Ares 1 will launch the Orion space capsules and their astronaut crews.

The Ares 5 will be a monster rocket in the same class as the Saturn 5 rockets that NASA employed for the Apollo moon landing missions in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The huge booster will be used to launch lunar landers and Earth departure stages, which then will link up in low Earth orbit with the Orion capsules for moon trips.

NASA aims to start modifying KSC’s launch pad 39B for the Ares 1 rocket in the spring of 2008, NASA program manager Jeff Hanley said.

An initial Ares 1 test flight is scheduled for April 2009. The rocket will consist of a four-segment shuttle solid rocket booster with an inert fifth segment, a dummy upper stage and ballast in place of an Orion spacecraft.

In the event of a failure, NASA will have the option of launching a second test flight six months later

An Ares 1 test flight with a five-segment solid rocket booster and an upper stage powered by a single J-2 engine is scheduled for July 2012.

Two launches also are planned to test the Orion spacecraft without astronauts on board. Another Ares-1 would be launched on a test-flight with a cargo-carrying version of the capsule.

Those flights are scheduled between late 2012 and the fall of 2014.

NASA has yet to pick a pad for the mammoth Ares 5 rocket, but Hanley said the agency’s intent now is to use complex 39.

The options in that case would include building a new pad, modifying pad 39A or converting pad 39B into a dual use facility that could accommodate both the Ares 1 and Ares 5. A decision is expected in the new few months.

NASA Exploration Systems’ managers will host a press conference at 4 p.m. EDT Thursday, Aug. 31, to announce the prime contractor to design, develop, and build Orion, America’s next human spacecraft.

The press conference will be in the NASA headquarters auditorium, 300 E Street S.W., Washington. It will air live on the Web and on NASA TV. Reporters may ask questions from participating NASA locations. Reporters should coordinate with local agency centers by 4 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Aug. 30 for access information.

Associate Administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate Scott Horowitz, Exploration Deputy Associate Administrator Doug Cooke, Constellation Program Manager Jeff Hanley, and CEV Project Manager Caris A. (Skip) Hatfield will announce the selection and discuss the program.

Orion is the vehicle NASA is developing to carry a new generation of explorers back to the moon and later to Mars. Orion will succeed the space shuttle as NASA’s primary vehicle for human space exploration. Orion’s first flight with astronauts aboard is planned for no later than 2014 to the International Space Station. Its first flight to the moon is planned for no later than 2020.