Lockheed Martin to build future moonship

Alan Boyle Science editor • Profile • E-mail

Lockheed Martin on Thursday won NASA's multibillion-dollar nod to build the Orion crew exploration vehicle, a spaceship with a look and a mission that echoes the space agency's giant leap to the moon in the 1960s.

The announcement kicks off an effort to produce spacecraft that would replace NASA's fleet of space shuttles, due for retirement in 2010. NASA's timetable calls for the cone-shaped Orion ships to bring cargo or up to six crew members to the international space station by 2014, and carry up to four astronauts to the moon and back by 2020.

For 13 months, two high-profile aerospace teams — one led by Lockheed Martin, the other led by Northrop Grumman and The Boeing Co. — have worked on paper proposals to fit NASA's specifications. Now it's up to Lockheed Martin to turn the concept into a reality.

"This is the first human-rated spacecraft to take astronauts from the Earth into orbit that we have developed in over 30 years," Scott Horowitz, NASA's associate administrator for exploration systems, said during Thursday's briefing at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

The contract calls for the Lockheed Martin team to be paid $3.9 billion through 2013 for developing the Orion and delivering two spacecraft for space station deliveries. NASA estimates that another $4 billion-plus may be paid out through 2019 for follow-up purchases and services.

Some outside observers have said the total cost of the project could balloon to $18 billion or more over the course of the next decade — which is roughly how much it cost to build the Apollo command and service modules in inflation-adjusted dollars. In any case, the Orion contract will represent a significant chunk of the $104 billion NASA has said it will cost to return to the moon and set the stage for further space exploration.

Along with Orion, NASA is funding the development of a new family of rockets called the Ares and a next-generation lunar lander — all drawing upon technology from the shuttle program as well as the Apollo era. The Orion's similarities to the 1960s-era craft led NASA Administrator Mike Griffin to describe the larger program, called Project Constellation, as "Apollo on steroids."

Doug Cooke, NASA's deputy associate administrator for exploration systems, said the competing proposals for Orion were judged on the basis of mission suitability, cost and past performance. However, he declined to specify exactly why they chose Lockheed Martin over the Northrop-Boeing team, saying they still had to "debrief" the winners and the losers.

"This is a design that is based on known capabilities," Cooke said of Lockheed Martin's design. "We know that this can be built, so there are some differences there, perhaps."

Taking a lead role in the development of a manned spacecraft may be more of a stretch for Lockheed Martin. Historically, the company has been more involved with NASA's unmanned space missions, while Northrop Grumman and Boeing trace their corporate lineages back to the manned spacecraft of the 1960s.

Upgrading earlier technologies
NASA says Orion is borrowing from Project Apollo and the shuttle program to avoid the risks associated with developing an entirely new spaceship.

"There were great technological pushes to make those systems fly," Jeff Hanley, NASA's program manager for Project Constellation, said of NASA's past spacecraft. "We're not in that situation with the Orion. ... We're not pushing the edge of the envelope in terms of designing and building this system."

The 25-ton, 16.5-foot-wide (5-meter-wide) Orion craft would be lofted into orbit atop an Ares 1 rocket, which will use engines adapted from the shuttle's solid rocket boosters as well as the Apollo era's Saturn 5 rocket. A heavy-lift Ares 5 rocket would be used to put unmanned payloads into orbit — including a yet-to-be-developed lunar lander and an upper stage for the trip to the moon.

For lunar journeys, the Orion would rendezvous with the earth departure stage and the lunar lander in Earth orbit, then head out for the moon. The lander would undock from the Orion, descend to the lunar surface for a visit of up to a week, then lift off and redock for the return trip home.

The Orion might splash down at sea, as the Apollo capsule did — or it might descend to a touchdown on land, with that descent slowed by parachutes and perhaps cushioned by airbags.

The deal that NASA struck with Lockheed Martin has an option for the production of two crew vehicles and three cargo vehicles per year, Hanley said.

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