NASA has announced that it has awarded Lockheed Martin Corp. a multibillion-dollar contract for the design, development, testing, and evaluation the new Orion spacecraft. NASA states that the Orion will be capable of transporting four crewmembers for lunar missions and later supporting crew transfers for Mars missions. In additional it could also carry up to six crew members to and from the International Space Station. The craft is expected to have its first manned launch by 2014 and bring astronauts back to the moon by 2020.
Lockheed Martin beat out a Northrop Grumman Corp-Boeing team after a year-long selection process. Yahoo! Finance has a detailed list of the contractors in the two teams.
Rand Simberg who supported losing Northrop Grumman Corp-Boeing team has a blog posting on the decision noting how Lockheed Martin’s already tried and failed to build a space shuttle replacement – the failed X-33. CNN has an AP News report that also mentions this.
Not part of this contract is the construction of a lunar lander.
Update: Sept 4, 2006
T.L. James who worked on the Lockheed Martin proposal calls the AP News report a "hatchet job" and describes why much of the issues it raises are old or incorrect.
Also as much as I wish NASA was ready to order a Mars Lander the Slashdot headline " Lockheed Martin Wins Contract to Build Mars Lander" is wrong.