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LOS ANGELES – NASA announced on September 23 that Lockheed Martin will be awarded a contract for the long-term production of the Orion spacecraft, covering a maximum of 12 spacecraft that meet NASA's anticipated requirements for the years to come. 2030.
Orion's production and operating contract includes an initial order of three Orion satellites for Artemis missions 3, 4 and 5 for $ 2.7 billion. NASA plans to buy three more Orion satellites, for Artemis 6, 7 and 8, in 2022 for $ 1.9 billion. These spacecraft will be ordered under cost-plus contracts.
The contract includes the option of up to six additional Orion spacecraft ordered until September 2030. These will be ordered under firm price contracts, the price being based on data from cost of the six previous Orion spacecraft.
"This contract guarantees the production of Orion over the next decade, demonstrating NASA's commitment to establish a sustainable presence on the moon to bring new knowledge and prepare for sending astronauts to Mars" said NASA's director Jim Bridenstine about the contract.
"This contract clearly demonstrates 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, vice Executive Chairman of Lockheed Martin Space, in a corporate release.
The cost savings envisioned by NASA and Lockheed will come in part from reuse. Certain interior components, from the electronic components to the seats through the Orion performing the Artemis 2 mission, will be used again on Orion for Artemis 5. The Artemis Orion Crew 3 will be available again on Artemis 6.
"We learned a lot about how to design and build a better Orion – like design for reuse, the use of augmented reality and additive manufacturing – and we apply that to the next set of vehicles." Mike Hawes, head of the Orion program at Lockheed Martin, said in his company's statement. "Reducing costs and making them more efficient and faster will be key to the success of the Artemis program."
Hawes, in an April interview, also said that reusability would play a role in achieving Orion's 50% production cost reduction goal in the long run. At the time, the company had a slightly different re-use schedule, to refurbish the Orion crew module to what is now Artemis 4 as part of the Artemis 7 mission.
The new contract had been in preparation for some time. Hawes said in April that the company was finalizing a proposal for this contract with this 50% cost reduction target, although neither NASA nor Lockheed Martin has indicated whether this new contract would achieve this goal. goal.
At a September 18 hearing of the subcommittee of the House's Scientific Committee, Ken Bowersox, Acting Associate Administrator in charge of Exploration and Human Operations, said he expected that Orion's long-term contract is finalized "fairly quickly" and the agency moves from price to lump sum prices. He also reiterated that after the Artemis 3 mission in 2024, NASA had planned an Orion launch per year, which means that if all the options of the contract were exercised, that would cover NASA's needs. well beyond 2030.
NASA took advantage of the announcement to highlight the role of Houston's Johnson Space Center, which manages the Orion program, in the larger Artemis program. In August, NASA was criticized by members of the Texas Congress delegation for having entrusted the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama with the management of the lunar lander program, even though the work will be done mainly by companies located elsewhere.
The NASA press release announcing the contract with Orion took the unusual decision to include the comments of three members of the Texas Congress: Sense. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn and Representative Brian Babin. All three parties have publicly criticized NASA's decision to give Marshall the lunar lander program, citing Johnson's expertise with crewed spacecraft, and Babin has withdrawn from #############################################################################> 39, a scheduled appearance at NASA 's announcement of the lunar landing program in Marshall.
"I am delighted that Director Bridenstine has responded to my calls and is taking important steps to keep Johnson growing with the promising future of human exploration," said Cruz in a statement. NASA, a comment that he had included in a statement from his own office. "There is still a lot of work to be done and I look forward to seeing production increase in the weeks and months to come, as well as more opportunities with NASA."
But, as with Marshall 's moon landing program, much of Orion' s work will be done elsewhere than at the Johnson Space Center. In its announcement, Lockheed noted that the assembly of the Artemis 2 Orion probe was already well underway at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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