Lockheed Martin: Contractor for Orion Spacecraft

Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. is an American aerospace company. It is the prime contractor for the Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle that is intended to bring astronauts into low Earth orbit.

The first unmanned tests of Orion are supposed to take place in 2014, with manned missions possibly following in a few more years. NASA has not yet outlined a detailed plan for what it will do with Orion when humans begin piloting the spacecraft.

Orion Space Capsule
The Orion space capsule is seen as it rolls down Pennsylvania Avenue during the inaugural parade honoring President Barack Obaama, Monday Jan. 21, 2013, in Washington.
Credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi

Exploiting space experience

Lockheed Martin is an experienced hand in aerospace missions. The company's aircraft have set records and achieved milestones in aviation and space exploration for about 100 years:

  • In 1928, the first nonstop transcontinental flight was completed in a Lockheed Vega, a four-passenger wooden monoplane.
  • In 1930, Charles Lindbergh and his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, set a transcontinental speed record in a Lockheed Sirius.
  • In 1932, Amelia Earhart made her solo transatlantic flight in a Lockheed Vega.
  • In 1957, the first Vanguard rocket was launched.
  • In 1959, Lockheed's Agena rocket launches the United States' first satellite, Explorer 1, into orbit.
  • In 1974, Lockheed's SR-71 Blackbird spy plane sets a speed record — 3 hours 45 minutes from London to Los Angeles.

More recently, Lockheed built the external tank for the space shuttle and is part of the joint company United Space Alliance, which maintained the shuttle. Lockheed has also built several Mars spacecraft, including Mars Phoenix, which explored the Red Planet's south pole. The company also constructed Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which serves as a communications relay for the Curiosity and Opportunity rovers.

Orion contract awarded

The company faced stiff competition for the lucrative Orion contract when it was announced in 2004. Lockheed went toe-to-toe with Northrop Grumman (most famous for the Apollo lunar lander) and Boeing in winning the contract. It was valued at up to $8.15 billion when it was awarded in August 2006.

At the time, a spokesperson stated the employees were "humbled and excited" about winning the contract. "Work already is under way and we are fully focused on the vital tasks that lie ahead to meet NASA's requirements for the program," stated Joanne Maguire, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Space Systems, in an Aug. 31, 2006 news release.

NASA's Orion deep-space capsule is slated to be the go-to spacecraft for missions to an asteroid and beyond. See how NASA's Orion spacecraft will work in this Space.com infographic.
Credit: Karl Tate, SPACE.com contributor

But Orion's future fell into doubt in 2010, after President Obama cancelled the planned Constellation program. By that point, NASA had already spent $5 billion on the development. NASA hinted the spacecraft could be repurposed in April 2011. One month later, the agency unveiled a new plan to develop a Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle based on the Orion spacecraft designs.


Setbacks and setting the stage

Lockheed, like other aerospace companies, has had to do cutbacks as the U.S. economy continues to drag through a recession.

In 2011, the space division of the company announced it would reduce its workforce by up to 1,200 people to "address affordability and improve its competitive posture." Its workforce at the time was about 16,000.

The company's largest setback with Orion so far came in November 2012, when engineers discovered cracks in the spacecraft after performing a test that subjected the spacecraft to high pressure.

"The cracks are in three adjacent, radial ribs of this integrally machined, aluminum bulkhead," NASA's Rachel Kraft wrote in an email to SPACE.com at the time. "This hardware will be repaired and will not need to be remanufactured."

However, the company is not without a sense of history as it works on the Orion spacecraft. The Florida facility where the spaceship is coming together is the same spot where moon-bound spacecraft were manufactured in the 1960s.

Although the facility is old, Lockheed Martin is working to adapt it for its own needs – and to leave little trace behind so that other spacecraft can be made in the same spot.

"We made extensive modifications to the facility," said Jim Kemp, Lockheed Martin's director for Orion assembly, testing and launch operations, in a May 2012 SPACE.com interview.

"A lot of the things we did to the facility was to make it more flexible. I think if you go into most of the facilities on this campus [at Kennedy Space Center], you'll see a lot of structures bolted to the ground. Anywhere you are bolting something to the floor, you are creating a unique place that can't be used for anything else. You've created a monument. So we designed this thing with no monuments."

Orion Crew and Service Module (Annotated)
Orion crew and service module with annotations. Image released Jan. 16, 2013.
Credit: NASA

First test flight in 2014

Orion's resemblance to the Apollo command module is only skin-deep. Orion can carry four astronauts instead of three, and has an exponential capability in computer power. Further, its heat shield is constructed of newer substances.

Building Orion will take on new meaning in the coming year as the test flight rapidly approaches. As of mid-2012, NASA planned to fly the Orion on its first test flight – the Orion Exploration Flight Test-1 – in the spring of 2014.

Riding aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket, Orion will rocket to orbit and make two orbits of Earth. This will include maneuvers that will boost it to more than 3,600 miles (5,800 kilometers) above Earth – about 15 times the altitude of the International Space Station.

That high altitude will lead to a high-speed re-entry of 20,000 mph (32,000 kph). This is supposed to demonstrate the strength of the heat shield when bringing back astronauts from destinations such as an asteroid or the moon.


In the long term, Orion will launch aboard NASA's Space Launch System, which is a heavy-lift rocket still being developed. The two systems should have their first flight test together in 2017. The first human flight with these systems would be around 2021.

— Elizabeth Howell, SPACE.com Contributor


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