The Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC)-built Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) has been awarded the 2009 Aviation Week Program Excellence Award in the System Level Production/Sustainment category. The award is presented annually to recognize and promote best practices in program leadership, encompassing the full range of responsibility and commitment necessary to develop and execute the program. LCROSS was evaluated against award criteria that includes risk management, budget and schedule management, and performance and also addresses value creation, best practices in organizational processes, leadership development, complexity and metrics.

Northrop Grumman worked closely with NASA Ames Research Center to use sophisticated management processes that enabled it to design, fabricate, test and make the LCROSS spacecraft available for launch in just 27 months for US$57 million. The LCROSS spacecraft was built using an off-the-shelf structure called the Expendable Launch Vehicle Secondary Payload Adaptor (ESPA ring) and commercial, off-the-shelf (COTS) sensors and components.