NASA gave Lockheed Martin [LMT] a $47.5 million contract change for external fuel tanks to be mated to space shuttle orbiter vehicles in future missions.
Lockheed Martin will make the tanks at New Orleans at the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility.
The contract change calls for final assembly of one tank, partial manufacture of a tank and acquisition of component parts for one additional tank to serve as spares, according to NASA.
That cost plus award fee/incentive fee contract will conclude Sept. 30, 2010, when the shuttle fleet is mandated to stop flying.
This latest pact brings the total value of the contract with Lockheed Martin, awarded in October 2000, to $2.93 billion, calling for the delivery of 18 external tanks to NASA.
Work will be performed at Michoud; Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
Lockheed Martin builds, assembles and tests the space shuttle external tanks for NASA at the Michoud facility. The external tank holds the liquid hydrogen fuel and liquid oxygen for the shuttle’s three main engines. It is the largest single component of the space shuttle and the only part of the shuttle that is not reused.
At 154 feet tall, the gigantic rust-colored tank is taller than a 15-story building and as wide as a silo, with a diameter of about 27.5 feet. During launch, the tank acts as the structural backbone for the shuttle orbiter and the solid rocket boosters attached to it.
The tanks that Lockheed Martin will work on under the contract change are far different from the tank that caused a problem leading to loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia orbiter vehicle and crew of seven in 2003.
Then, a chunk of foam insulation on the tank ripped loose and struck the orbiter vehicle during ascent, punching a hole in the heat shield leading edge of a wing. Later, during reentry, fiery hot atmospheric gases rushed into the wing, melting structural components and leading to loss of the orbiter vehicle.
Tanks that Lockheed Martin will work on will incorporate many design changes to lessen risks of foam loss.