DENVER - Lockheed Martin in Bethesda, Md. is now under contract to deliver three Orion spacecraft to NASA for its Artemis VI-VIII missions. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor to NASA for the Orion program and has completed two Orion vehicles—EFT-1 which flew in 2014, and Artemis I, which is weeks away from its launch to the Moon—and is actively building vehicles for the Artemis II-V missions.
"Lockheed Martin is honored to partner with NASA to deliver Orion spacecraft for NASA's Artemis missions. This order includes spacecraft, mission planning and support, and takes us into the 2030s," said Lisa Callahan, vice president and general manager for Commercial Civil Space, Lockheed Martin. "We're on the eve of a historic launch kicking off the Artemis era and this contract shows NASA is making long-term plans toward living and working on the Moon, while also having a forward focus on getting humans to Mars."
This order marks the second three missions under the agency's Orion Production and Operations Contract (OPOC), an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract for up to 12 vehicles.
With the Artemis I Orion spacecraft currently on top of the Space Launch System rocket, there are two other Orion vehicles undergoing assembly at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Artemis II and III. Work is well under way on the Artemis IV craft including welding the pressure vessel together at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans and the heat shield at Lockheed Martin's facility near Denver, and work has already begun on the Artemis V vehicle.
