spacetoday.net: NASA awards CEV study contracts

Posted: Wed, Jul 13, 2005, 8:06 AM ET (1206 GMT)
Lockheed Martin CEV concepts (LM)

NASA announced Tuesday that it has issued study contracts to the two teams who submitted proposals for the development of the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), the manned spacecraft that will ultimately replace the space shuttle. NASA awarded the contracts, each valued at about $28 million, to Lockheed Martin and a Northrop Grumman-Boeing team; the two had emerged as effectively the only companies proposing to develop the CEV. The contracts cover design work through a July 2006 engineering review. NASA had planned to select a single contractor for the CEV after a 2008 "flyoff" between competing designs, but now plans to accelerate development of the vehicle so it can be ready around the time the shuttle is retired in 2010. A NASA press release said a selection was now planned for early 2006, although it wasn't clear if the selection would be made before the engineering review announced in the same release.