Experts are reacting with cautious optimism to the announcement that Lockheed Martin was selected by NASA over the Northrop Grumman and Boeing team to build the next generation space shuttle.
“To a certain extent, [Lockheed and Northrop] are the only two monolithic aerospace companies,” said Keith Cowing, NASA watchdog and editor of NASAwatch.com. “NASA had to pick one or the other.”
Cowing said he is confident Lockheed can do the job, but said the company and its subcontractors would have to attract new talent to build the capsule.
“The last time we built a manned spacecraft was in the ’70s,” he said. “That was so long ago so that, quite frankly, no one has the experience to build a spacecraft like this.”
“Whether it’s Northrop Grumman, Boeing or Lockheed, a lot of the expertise has left the field recently,” Cowing added.
Lockheed has built several unmanned probes for NASA, and was awarded a contract in 1996 for amanned space plane known as the X-33. NASA spent $912 million developing the plane, which was never built.
“It’s sort of surprising [NASA] would pick a company with a recent track record in regards to spacecraft that is not that good,” Cowing said.
George Washington University professor John Logsdon said he is confident Lockheed and its subcontractors will get the shuttle built and in the air by the NASA-imposed deadline of September 2014.
“It’s a great coup for Lockheed,” he said. “This is the biggest contract in civilian space for many years.
“Because this is such an exciting program, they’re going to be able to attract people,” Logsdon said. “This is first time in over 30 years … that hardware to carry people into space has been put under contract. This is a very big deal.”
