9.01.2006
Orion by Lockheed
Congratulations to Lockheed Martin on nailing the mega-billion dollar NASA deal to design and build the new US spaceship to fly to the moon and beyond....Here's some background from NASA on Lockheed's selection (over Northrop Grumman/Boeing) in "one of the most significant NASA procurements in more than 30 years...," (plus a neat little video); as well as more coverage of "Apollo on steroids"/Orion here (Alan Boyle, MSNBC), here (Brian Berger, Space.com), here (William Harwood, Spaceflight Now), here (NY Times) and media outlets everywhere.
UPDATE: And here's today's announcement that Orbital will provide the launch abort system for Orion.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Speaking of going to the moon, the European Space Agency's SMART-1 probe is on track for its controlled crash into the lunar surface this weekend. (Ouch. Turns out, getting there is not always the hardest part.)
