Orion: it's Lockheed - Martin

[Dr Mordrid]

Top-notch avionics and tons of experience with DoD re-entry systems did it. I'm sure access to the boys at the Skunk Works were an unofficial advantage too.



Full res. pics:

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/1...unar_orbit.jpg http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/1..._with_LSAM.jpg

WASHINGTON–NASA has selected Lockheed Martin as the prime contractor to design, develop and build the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), the planned replacement for the space shuttle that will become backbone of the agency’s human spaceflight program. Lockheed Martin beat out a rival bid from Northrop Grumman and Boeing to win a contract worth billions of dollars in the years ahead.

Their major partners are;

Shuttle-operator United Space Alliance of Houston; Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va.; Honeywell Defense and Space Electronics Systems, Minneapolis, Minn; and Hamilton Sundstrand of Windsor Locks, Conn.

More pics;

[KRSESQ]

NOW I know where I've seen this spacecraft design before! Orion is virtually identical to the CEV in the NERVA-powered Pilgrim Observer Space Station model kit from the early 70's, When it was assumed that the solar system beckoned.

See here.

Pilgrim's mission, presumably, was to act as an interplanetary ferry between Earth, Mars, and Jupiter. Each mission circuit would last ten years. Maybe it's time for the idea to be re-examined.

Kevin