Jared Moya
September 1st, 2006, 03:43 PM
The Lockheed Martin Corporation will build the next US spaceship to take humans to the Moon.
Nasa has awarded a multi-billion-dollar contract to the group to develop the Orion vehicle, which will replace the space shuttle when it retires in 2010.
The agency is dropping the shuttle's winged, reusable design and is going back to the capsule-style ships that first carried Americans into orbit.
Lockheed Martin beat a joint bid from Northrop Grumman and Boeing.
The US space agency wants to fly the Orion vehicles no later than 2014. Initially, they will go to the International Space Station, but Nasa plans to send one to the Moon in 2020.
The capsules will launch atop one-time-use, "single stick" rockets, called Ares, that Nasa is developing.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42038000/jpg/_42038102_launcher_nasa_416.jpg
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5304086.stm
Nasa has awarded a multi-billion-dollar contract to the group to develop the Orion vehicle, which will replace the space shuttle when it retires in 2010.
The agency is dropping the shuttle's winged, reusable design and is going back to the capsule-style ships that first carried Americans into orbit.
Lockheed Martin beat a joint bid from Northrop Grumman and Boeing.
The US space agency wants to fly the Orion vehicles no later than 2014. Initially, they will go to the International Space Station, but Nasa plans to send one to the Moon in 2020.
The capsules will launch atop one-time-use, "single stick" rockets, called Ares, that Nasa is developing.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42038000/jpg/_42038102_launcher_nasa_416.jpg
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5304086.stm