DENVER, Sept. 23, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA and
Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) have finalized a contract for the
production and operations of six Orion spacecraft missions and the
ability to order up to 12 in total. Orion is NASA's deep space
exploration spaceship that will carry astronauts from Earth to the
Moon and bring them safely home. Lockheed Martin has been the prime
contractor during the development phase of the Orion program.
"This contract clearly shows NASA's commitment not only to
Orion, but also to Artemis and its bold goal of sending humans to
the Moon in the next five years," said Rick
Ambrose, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Space.
"We are equally committed to Orion and Artemis and producing these
vehicles with a focus on cost, schedule and mission success."
The agency's Orion Production and Operations Contract (OPOC) is
an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contact for NASA
to issue both cost-plus-incentive fee and firm-fixed-price orders.
Initially, NASA has ordered three Orion spacecraft for Artemis
missions III-V for $2.7 billion. Then
in fiscal year 2022, the agency plans to order three additional
Orion spacecraft for Artemis missions VI-VIII for $1.9 billion.
OPOC will realize substantial savings compared to the costs of
vehicles built during the design, development, test and evaluation
(DDT&E) phase.
Up to six additional Orion spacecraft may be ordered under the
IDIQ contract through Sept. 30, 2030,
leveraging spacecraft production cost data from the previous six
missions to enable the lowest possible unit prices.
The first spacecraft delivered on this contract, Artemis III,
will carry the first woman and the next man to the Moon in 2024,
where they will dock with the Gateway and ultimately land on the
surface using a lunar landing system. Orion is a critical part of
the agency's Artemis program to build a sustainable presence
on the lunar surface and to prepare us to move on to Mars.
Reusable Orion crew modules and systems, use of advanced
manufacturing technologies, material and component bulk buys and an
accelerated mission cadence all contribute to considerable cost
reductions on these production vehicles.
"We have learned a lot about how to design and manufacture a
better Orion—such as designing for reusability, using augmented
reality and additive manufacturing—and we're applying this to this
next series of vehicles. Driving down cost and manufacturing them
more efficiently and faster will be key to making the Artemis
program a success," said Mike Hawes,
Orion program manager for Lockheed Martin Space. "One must also
appreciate how unique Orion is. It's a spaceship like none other.
We've designed it to do things no other spacecraft can do, go to
places no astronaut has been and take us into a new era of human
deep space exploration."
Lockheed Martin and NASA recently announced the completion
of the Orion crew and service module being developed for the
Artemis I mission, an uncrewed mission to the Moon. Work on the
spacecraft for the Artemis II mission, the first crewed flight to
the Moon, is well underway at the Kennedy
Space Center in Florida.
More information about Orion:
Lockheed Martin Orion page:
https://www.lockheedmartin.com/orion
NASA Orion page: https://www.nasa.gov/orion
About Lockheed Martin
Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a
global security and aerospace company that employs approximately
105,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the
research, design, development, manufacture, integration and
sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and
services.
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SOURCE Lockheed Martin