NASA Signs Contract with Lockheed Martin
A $465.7 million dollar contract has been signed between NASA and Lockheed Martin in New Orleans for space shuttle external tanks. Prior to the space shuttle’s retirement of 2010, the new modifications will align and extend all associated activities for the tank’s production contract. NASA has designated that the new modifications will support the agency’s priorities of safely flying the space shuttle, which will complete the International Space Agency and NASA’s long-term goal of returning the astronauts to the moon and beyond.
Concluding on September 30, 2010, the total value of the Lockheed Martin contract for the cost, award fee, and incentive fee will be itself $2.94, with the contract calling for a delivery of 17 external tanks to NASA. The work will be done at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, which is NASA’s own Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, with NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The process at the facility will be the building, assembly and testing of the space shuttle external tanks, with the tanks holding the liquid hydrogen fuel and liquid oxygen. This will occur in the shuttle’s three main engine divisions, being the largest single component of the space shuttle and the only part of the shuttle not being reused. The tank is approximately 154 feet tall–a gigantic rust-colored tank that is taller than a 15-story building while as wide as an old-fashioned silo, and a diameter of 27.5 feet. When the space shuttle is launching, the external tank acts as a structural backbone for the shuttle’s orbiter and the solid rocket boosters that are attached.
With the space shuttle’s external tanks causing so many problems recently in the fuel sensor system, causing two launch attempts for the shuttle’s mission STS-122 in early December of 2007, a future launching will occur no earlier than January 10, 2008. The contract between Lockheed Martin and NASA will hopefully straighten things out enough to bring everyone a sigh of relief for future shuttle missions. According to NASA, this nearly 60-year relationship between the two giants have partnered in the “development and fielding of advancing technologies for applications in the nation’s primary tactical airlift aircrafts. ”
Lockheed Martin has always been there for the US government, especially if they want to get the job done in conflict, which is considered to be the largest arms manufacturer in the entire world. With a 98% revenue consisting of defense, it overall annual turnover was $37.2 billion dollars. Fortune 500 ranked them the 52nd most profitable American company in the world. The company has boasted that 80% of its customers are from the United States, which consists of the United States Department of Defense and the federal government agencies. The remaining 20% consist of international governments, along with commercial sales of products and services. Their specialization consist of aeronautics, electronics, informative systems and technology, and a $7.9 billion dollar space system.
This entry was posted on Monday, December 24th, 2007 at 9:44 pm and is filed under Public Relations, Space Agency News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
