Lockheed wins $1B space shuttle pact

Electronic News, July 8, 1996

Bethesda, Md.--Lockheed Martin beat out Rockwell International and McDonnell Douglas for the $1 billion-plus next-generation Space Shuttle contract. The win, announced by Vice President Gore last week, is expected to pave the way toward privatization of the space program.

NASA selected Lockheed Martin's VentureStar as the winner of the X-33 Single-Stage-to-Orbit (SSTO) Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) competition. Lockheed Martin will lead Phase II of the RLV program valued at more than $1 billion through 2000, and produce a sub-scale demonstrator vehicle scheduled to begin flying in March 1999. VentureStar flights will demonstrate the technical and financial feasibility of creating a fleet of RLVs sustained by the commercial space launch market. Development of the full-scale operational VentureStar is slated to begin around the turn of the century.

VentureStar is said to feature an aerodynamically efficient lifting body configuration, linear aerospike engines that adjust themselves to perform with maximum efficiency at all attitudes, extensive use of high-strength, low-weight composites, fast mission turnaround through aircraft-like servicing and standardized containers for payloads.

Lockheed Martin's Aeronautics Sector and its Skunk Works advanced design unit led the winning team, joined by operating companies from the firm's Space & Strategic Missiles Sector, Information & Technology Services Sector and Electronics Sector: Astronautics of Denver, Colo., and Huntsville, Ala.; Engineering & Science Services of Houston, Texas; Manned Space Systems of New Orleans, La.; Sanders of Nashua, N.H.; and Space Operations of Titusville, Fla.

Major industry partners and their responsibilities include: AlliedSignal Aerospace, Teterboro, N.J., airframe/space subsystems; Rocketdyne, Canoga Park, Calif., linear aerospike engine, reaction control system, orbital maneuvering system, engine operability improvement; Rohr, Chula Vista, Calif., thermal protection system design, fabrication, operability improvements; and Sverdrup, St. Louis, Mo., launch facility construction.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., will be responsible for program management, wind tunnel testing, loads, flutter, vibration and dynamics analysis. Five other NASA centers and an Air Force laboratory also will participate in the program: Ames Research Center, Mountain View, Calif., thermal protection system testing; Dryden Research Center, Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., X-33 flight testing, aerospike engine flight testing; Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, guidance navigation and control technology, manned space systems, health management; Kennedy Space Center in Florida, RLV operations, health management; Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., wind tunnel testing, aerodynamic analysis; and Phillips Laboratory, Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., isogrid composite application processes.

"In the coming century, thousands of new companies will be doing business in space. Today, one team was chosen to lead the way," said Norman R. Augustine, vice chairman/CEO of Lockheed Martin.