CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Jan. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- After a two-year, top to
bottom renovation, the High Bay Facility of the Operations & Checkout (O&C)
Building at NASA'S Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is now ready to begin
preparations to build the new Orion crew exploration vehicle -- the flagship
of NASA's Constellation Program.
Built in 1964, the O&C facility has a proud history as the final
integration and checkout building for U.S. spacecraft used for human
spaceflight beginning with the Apollo program. In 2007, after completing
support activities for the International Space Station, major upgrades were
planned to support future human spaceflight missions. The State of Florida,
Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT) and NASA committed to invest more than
$55 million to create a state-of-the-art facility to support NASA's future
endeavors.
"The most significant benefit of these facility upgrades is that we now
have on-site manufacturing and assembly of the spacecraft at KSC just before
it is put onto the launch stack," said Richard Harris, Lockheed Martin Orion
deputy program manager for Production Operations. "This is a first for NASA
and human space flight technology today. In addition, this capability saves a
tremendous amount of time and cost in preparing for a launch since there is no
cross-country shipment of the vehicle requiring additional test and checkout
upon arrival at KSC."
"This is another signal to the aerospace industry throughout the nation
and internationally that the Space Coast is a location prepared to do
business," said Lt. Governor Jeff Kottkamp. "Our outstanding workforce and
talent pool, along with this infrastructure positions the Space Coast to
attract additional manufacturing, research, development, and quality
processing programs."
According to Linda Weatherman of the Florida Economic Development Council,
the renovation investment made a significant economic impact to the local and
state economies. The O&C project has provided over 230 jobs in Florida for
the design, fabrication and construction activities.
Renovations by Florida's Hensel Phelps, the construction contractor for
this project, began in 2007 with the demolition of abandoned systems. The
project remained on schedule with new facility designs established
concurrently by a team of NASA, supporting contractors and Lockheed Martin
engineers.
Extending the economic impact beyond the state of Florida, Lockheed Martin
has contracted a significant portion of the Orion manufacturing and assembly
operations to United Space Alliance, which will utilize its Florida Shuttle
workforce. This includes transportation of Crew Modules, Service Modules and
miscellaneous equipment to support Orion's Flight Test Program and Flight
Hardware Production. Flight hardware will be fabricated at locations around
the country and shipped to the O&C facility for final integration and
assembly. Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Louisiana,
Maryland, New Mexico, Ohio, Texas, Utah and Virginia are also among those
states contributing to this effort.
"The Orion spacecraft will be a complex, state-of-the-art spacecraft with
the most capability, flexibility and adaptability of any other space flight
vehicle in history," said Cleon Lacefield, Lockheed Martin vice president and
Orion program manager. "It's very fitting that the O&C facility will offer
unparalleled tooling and assembly technology to enable the Orion team to
quickly turnaround the reusable parts of Orion or assemble new components
prior to launch. This will certainly help improve the efficiency of NASA'S
next generation of spacecraft."
Now that the facility is officially certified, the next phase of
activation will take place over the next two years as specially designed
tooling stations and other assembly equipment are moved into place to support
the first Orion spacecraft assembly activity, which is now scheduled to begin
in 2012.
The Constellation program is comprised of spacecraft and surface systems
that will carry astronauts to the International Space Station, back to the
moon and eventually on to Mars. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor to
NASA for Orion, which is scheduled to make its first crewed flight in 2015.
About Lockheed Martin
Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security
company that employs about 146,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged
in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment
of advanced technology systems, products and services. The corporation
reported 2008 sales of $42.7 billion.
http://www.lockheedmartin.com
About United Space Alliance
United Space Alliance (USA) is supporting Lockheed Martin's Orion project
in design and development of hardware and software for both flight and ground.
USA's primary roles include: performing the assembly, integration, and
processing of the Orion capsule at the Kennedy Space Center; providing
operations expertise to the Lockheed Martin design and engineering team to
ensure optimum operability and producibility; developing the initial Orion
avionics integration test facility at the Johnson Space Center; and providing
portions of the onboard flight software. More information about USA can be
found at http://www.unitedspacealliance.com
Media Contact: Linda Singleton, Lockheed Martin Orion Communications Manager
Office 281-283-4219; Mobile 832-526-8089
email, linda.singleton@lmco.com
SOURCE Lockheed Martin