NASA has awarded Lockheed Martin a $4.6bn contract to build nine "minimally reusable" Orion spacecraft for the Artemis programme, which aims to return US astronauts to the moon by 2024. Lockheed said it will seek to achieve operational efficiencies with each successive batch of three spacecraft delivered. The first two missions are scheduled for launch in 2021 and 2022 respectively.
NASA has awarded Lockheed Martin a $4.6bn contract to build nine "minimally reusable" Orion spacecraft for the Artemis programme, which aims to return US astronauts to the moon by 2024. Lockheed said it will seek to achieve operational efficiencies with each successive batch of three spacecraft delivered. Analysts said the company should make more than $820m from the contract if it retains its 17.9% operating profit margin.