The innovative company that was assigned to design and build the Orion was none other than the infamous Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin is responsible for building the manned capsule that is proposed to take astronauts far beyond Earth. Lockheed Martin has spent an immense of time working on the Orion project which they consider will change space travel as we know it. Allison Rakes a, Lockheed Martin spokesperson said “We live for this kind of project. We will tell our kids and our grandkids about this.”
Lockheed Martin which is Americas leading aerospace company was awarded a contract from NASA to design and build the Orion spacecraft on Aug. 31, 2006. The company is responsible for the design, build, testing, launch processing and mission operations of the spacecraft. Lockheed Martin has also kept safety as the first priority for the Astronauts and this is one of the reasons why the first mission for the Orion is unmanned, so that they can test all the core components and safety operations on the Orion. Finally Lockheed has continually emphasized that this mission is only the first of many for the Orion as its primary purpose will be to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit, such as asteroids, the moon and eventually Mars, and return them safely back to Earth.
