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| Monday / 2 October 2006 | ||
NASA Defends
Lockheed Orion Contract; Bush Points to Space Industry Jobs.
NASA has parried criticism of its decision
to enter into a long-term contract for the development and production
of the Orion spaceship, saying it was confident of both the vehicle's
design requirements and cost estimates. Appearing before a US House
Committee on Science hearing last week, the space agency's Scott
'Doc' Horowitz confirmed the award to Lockheed Martin Space Systems
Co. is worth, including all options, about US$8.1B through 2019.
The Government Accountability Office, in a report issued in the summer
said too many outstanding questions regarding vehicle design needs
and project risks remain unanswered, and NASA should have pursued
a series of shorter-term contracts with clear milestones for completion.
NASA subsequently revised the Lockheed contract to cover the initial
design and production of a vehicle, with long-term production of
many vehicles and ongoing maintenance being optional. The Committee
took no action, but members promised to monitor the progress of implementing
the Vision for Space Exploration, which includes a human return to
the Moon. Ranking Member Bart Gordon (D-TN) said, "I want to see
the CEV (Orion) program succeed. But, if there is a cost growth in
the CEV program, it has the potential to do serious damage to NASA's
other programs as well as to other parts of the exploration initiative."
Meanwhile, Florida Governor Jeb Bush said he is optimistic that
the 300-400 jobs created by Lockheed's decision to assemble the Orion
spaceships at Kennedy Space Center will be the first of thousands
of jobs tied to NASA's new Moon-landing program.
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