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[i]Garver said NASA’s Orion contract with Denver-based Lockheed Martin Space Systems would be restructured to develop a variant of the space capsule that could be launched unmanned to station within the next couple of years to serve as a crew lifeboat. Garver said the plan would allow the agency to retain some of its multibillion-dollar investment in the program while reducing U.S. reliance on Russian Soyuz spacecraft currently used as an emergency crew escape capability on the space station.[/i]
[i]Obama will outline concrete plans to send astronauts to nearby asteroids, to the Earth's moon and the moons of Mars, and to Mars itself. The administration has proposed spending $3.1 billion during the next five years to develop the "heavy lift" rocket needed for that taskand will commit to selecting by 2015 which design will be built.[/i]
[i]If approved by Congress, the move will help Lockheed and the government avoid significant termination costs associated with shutting the Orion project down. In addition, future commercial space transportation providers won't have to worry about paying for crew escape systems.[/i]
[i]White House officials said on Tuesday that Obama wants NASA to begin work on building a new heavy lift rocket sooner than envisioned under the canceled Constellation program, with a commitment to decide in 2015 on the specific rocket that will take astronauts deeper into space. "This is a rocket that is going to happen two years earlier than would've happened under the past program," a senior White House official said.[/i]
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