Lockheed Martin to build moon-bound spaceship
Afp,Washington
Nasa named Thursday a consortium led by US aerospace giant Lockheed Martin Corp. to design and build a new spacecraft that will take astronauts back to the moon. The multi-billion-dollar contract is a major step in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's space exploration ambitions. Nasa wants the Orion capsule to be ready for its first manned flight by 2014, four years after the US space agency retires its aging fleet of three space shuttles. The new-generation spaceship is intended to carry four astronauts on a moon mission by 2020 and eventually to Mars.
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