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Lockheed Readies for Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle at NASA's Kennedy Space Center |
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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla., Jan. 31, 2007/Satnews Daily/ ― A Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) team accepted responsibility on Tuesday for the Operations & Checkout (O&C) Building at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Kennedy Space Center. Lockheed Martin will use the historic facility to process Orion, America's next-generation human spacecraft.
The transition announcement was made in a ceremony held at Kennedy Space Center's O&C Building originally used for the Apollo program. Lockheed was selected by NASA last August to design and build Orion, a key element of NASA's Constellation Program that will succeed the Space Shuttle as NASA's primary vehicle for human space exploration by 2014.
Signaling the start of one the most significant spacecraft development efforts since the Space Shuttle, Orion is an advanced capsule design utilizing state-of-the-art technology that will be capable of transporting up to six crew members to and from the International Space Station and up to four crew members to the Moon and eventually to Mars. Final assembly, checkout and acceptance testing of Orion for both the Crew Module and Service Module will be performed in the O&C Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
“This is another significant step forward for the Orion program as we take this massive, historic building that served our nation's space program so well during the Apollo years and completely modernize it for an entirely new generation of human space exploration vehicles,” said Cleon Lacefield, vice president and Orion Program Manager of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company. “This is an exciting day for the entire team and we look forward to getting the O&C ready to support NASA's Orion missions for decades to come.”
Modifications to the O&C Building will be needed to prepare it for the Orion program. Lockheed said it will begin those modifications in April 2007 and will be completed in November 2008. Changes will include retrofitting of the existing Altitude Chamber to create a Thermal Vacuum Chamber for combined environment testing of Orion. Utilities such as power, nitrogen, housekeeping vacuum, compressed air and imagery cameras will be installed to support nine new Orion specific workstations.
Included in outfitting those new workstations will be three new modular clean areas to provide a 100,000 class clean room environment, as well as creation and outfitting of a Refurbishment Area to support post-flight processing of the crew module for re-use. In addition, a dedicated Lockheed Martin Intranet (LMI) will be installed to perform secured data/information transmission.
Lockheed chose the O&C Building for Orion's final assembly and integration because proximity with the launch operations will provide much greater efficiency in the flow of testing and operations leading to launch on the Ares I launch vehicle. The synergies gained by utilizing KSC for assembly and integration will provide NASA with greater operational flexibility during the final integration of Orion with Ares I.
The State of Florida also provided incentives and financial assistance valued at $45.5 million for the Orion program to cover training, transportation infrastructure, facility improvements and equipment. $35 million is going toward upgrading and modernizing the O&C facility. $10.5 million is going toward workforce development and training for a new generation of skilled employees in Florida who will continue to be engaged in NASA's next generation space program for decades to come.
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