Washington, DC – Today, members of the Colorado Congressional Delegation sought to protect the jobs of Lockheed Martin employees in Colorado working on the Orion Space Capsule project. 

Recently, NASA indicated Lockheed Martin and other government contractors working on the Constellation space flight project might have to bear the financial burden for terminating the Constellation project.  As a result, Lockheed Martin confirmed on May 27, 2010, that it will have to implement a 20 percent reduction in the Orion program to comply with this termination liability requirement.  This could mean reassigning employees and layoffs. 

In a letter sent today to President Obama, Reps. Perlmutter, DeGette, Lamborn, Markey, along with Sens. Udall and Bennet urged the President to direct NASA to withhold further actions regarding termination obligations because it may interfere with Congress’s statutory authority to have say in the Orion projects future.  Further, the letter calls on the Administration to put forward a comprehensive plan for restructuring the Orion program.

The delegation stated, “We are concerned that NASA’s approach to addressing termination liability is contrary to your charge and undermines the design and construction of the Orion spacecraft, jeopardizing the Orion workforce at a time when we need to be creating new jobs.”

“Furthermore, this move also undercuts your announced plan to retain Orion as a crew rescue vehicle.  If the program is to be restructured rather than terminated, as you announced at Kennedy Space Center, it seems counterproductive for NASA to force cuts to Orion without a long-term plan in place.  In addition, if Lockheed Martin is forced to cut components of Orion that ultimately will be part of the restructured program, NASA’s actions will add unnecessary costs to the program in order to restart those components.” 

The Orion program currently employs over 1,000 aerospace workers in Colorado, and supports many small businesses in Colorado.  A total of 4,000 government and industry employees support the program across the country.