We reported last March that Lockheed Martin Corporation aimed for Manned Space Flight. Well it's official because NASA has awarded a multi-billion dollar contract to actually build a manned lunar spacecraft.

This is interesting for several reasons, most apparent is that the last time NASA has outsourced with Lockheed Martin for a manned ship was way back in 1996. This was for the space plane that was supposed to replace the aged space shuttle. Some $912 million was spent but the ship called x-33 was never built.

Next point of interest is the ship itself, Lockheed Martin was chosen to build the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle. Again it's supposed to replace the space shuttle, but this time it has the goal to take astronauts to the moon and even perhaps Mars.

The last time we put people on the moon was in 1972.

The Orion spaceship is deliberately designed to look similar to the original baby boomer set. As NASA administrator Michael Griffin said, "Apollo on steroids." NASA wants Orion to be capable of delivering four astronauts to the moon, and six to the international space station. They also want Orion to have its own service module for lunar trips.

If all goes well, NASA estimates that the first test flights will be on September 2014. NASA adds that astronauts could possibly be returning to the moon by late 2019 or 2020.

Since last July, the US Government Accountability Office has warned that it was wrong for NASA to be choosing a contractor by late August-September. According to them the space agency was choosing a contractor without "well-defined requirements, a preliminary design, mature technology and firm cost estimates for the project." The GAO says, "This approach increases the risk that the project will encounter significant cost overruns, schedule delays and decreased capability."