Hamilton Sundstrand to Join Lockheed Martin Team on Project 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.

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