The Right Builder for the Right Spacecraft at the Right Time

Analysis: By awarding the contract for the next generation Orion space
vehicle to Lockheed Martin, NASA finally got something right. But will
Washington have the political will to complete the trip?

It was a long, long time in coming, but NASA’s manned space program finally got one right. Thursday's announcement that the contract for the next generation crew exploration vehicle—now dubbed Orion—had been awarded to Lockheed Martin was the right spacecraft to the right company at the right time.

Going on three years after President Bush announced his plans to send human beings back to the moon and onto Mars, not a bit of metal had yet been cut on the ships that would make the trips. That’s not such a long time by government standards. But by three years after President Kennedy made his commitment to send men to the moon in the first place, we had completed the six flights of the Mercury program and were on about the business of Gemini. And Kennedy delivered his speech before we had any real idea of how to make the trip. So it was high time NASA pulled the trigger on the new spacecraft, and the fact that it did so yesterday was a welcome sign of a true commitment.

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