The Denver Post
<<http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2479286,00.html#>>
NASA needs Lockheed savvy By Katy Human Denver Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 20, 2004 -
Despite four major disappointments involving Lockheed Martin Space Systems projects in recent years, NASA is unlikely to deny the Jefferson County company future contracts, space analysts said.
That's because there are few U.S. companies with the expertise to do the work, said Max Engel, a space industry analyst for California-based Frost & Sullivan.
"NASA can't afford to cut them off," Engel said. "That raises issues about how do you incentivize companies like Lockheed Martin not to do stupid things when they're so big you still have to use them."
Last month, the Lockheed- built Genesis lander slammed into the Utah desert, probably because company engineers, following faulty diagrams, installed four small switches backward on the $264 million craft.
In 1999, the Mars Climate Orbiter crashed into the Red Planet because Lockheed used English measurements while a NASA team used metric. Two months later, the Lockheed- built Mars Polar Lander also crashed after its descent rockets shut off prematurely, probably because of faulty switches. Those two Mars missions cost $230 million.
Last year, Lockheed engineers in a California facility dropped a $239 million satellite on the floor, causing $135 million in damage, according to a NASA investigation.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials Tuesday acknowledged that the agency relies on just a few large companies - including Lockheed, Boeing and Northrup Grumman - for help in building most spacecraft.
"It is well-known that when it comes to planetary exploration, the core capability in the nation is limited," said Orlando Figueroa, NASA's deputy associate administrator for science programs.
Even so, Lockheed's service for NASA is "full of successes," he said.
Still, the recent miscues have raised agency eyebrows.
"There is a reason to be concerned," Figueroa said, declining to comment on Lockheed's reliability for space exploration. Figueroa said he is waiting for a final report on the "root causes" of the Genesis crash.
Despite repeated requests, Lockheed Martin officials were unavailable for comment.
Figueroa said NASA is encouraging smaller companies to bid for NASA contracts. For example, Ball Aerospace in Boulder was selected to build NASA's $300 million Deep Impact mission, scheduled for launch in December. And the Southwest Research Institute, also in Boulder, recently landed a contract to design New Horizons, a roughly $600 million mission to Pluto that could launch as early as 2006.
"The intent is that, once done, they have walked away with some core expertise for the future," Figueroa said.
But Lockheed still commands control of many of NASA's high-profile missions.
On Tuesday, engineers at the company's Waterton Canyon facility packed up the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, a $700 million spacecraft designed to look for water on Mars and scheduled for launch next summer. The spacecraft will be moved to Lockheed's "shake and bake room" today, where temperatures will swing from broiling to freezing to test the craft's mettle.
In a nearby room, NASA investigators continue to pick through the wreckage of the Genesis lander for more clues about the crash.
That mishap and others have triggered extra oversight of Lockheed's latest Mars project, NASA's Figueroa said. Another Lockheed project, Stardust - a mission to collect comet dust - is also facing extra scrutiny.
Engel said he finds Lockheed's space-mission problems - some of them the apparent result of sloppiness - surprising, given the company's excellent performance in other arenas, such as commercial communications satellites.
"These people are turning in sterling performance on these satellites ... and making mistakes on other things that aren't really forgivable," he said.
But Paul Nesbit, an aerospace analyst with JSA Research Inc. in Newport, R.I., was more optimistic. Lockheed's space business is visible but not a major part of the company. Its successful satellite and aircraft manufacturing units excel, he said.
Staff writer Katy Human can be reached at 303-820-1910 or [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
-- Ronn! :)
"Earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot remain in the cradle forever." -- Konstantin E. Tsiolkovskiy
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