Lockheed Martin

Builds Orion and the next generation of GPS satellites, and built NOAA’s GOES-R weather satellites.

Founded
1995
Headquarters
Bethesda, Maryland
Machines in the atlas
5

Lockheed Martin formed in 1995 when Lockheed and Martin Marietta combined. It is NASA’s prime contractor for Orion and builds the crew module, whose pressure vessel is made at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility; the spacecraft is joined to its European Service Module at Kennedy Space Center.

The company also builds satellites the public uses every day without seeing them. It built the ten GPS III navigation satellites for the Space Force, the last launched in April 2026, and is building the next series, GPS IIIF. It also built NOAA’s four GOES-R geostationary weather satellites, the last of which launched in 2024.

Money from NASA

ContractValueYear
Orion Production and Operations Contract: first three spacecraft, for Artemis III–V (six to 12 in all)$2.7 billion2019

What it builds

Stories that involve Lockheed Martin

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Sources

  1. NASA Commits to Long-term Artemis Missions with Orion Production Contract NASA, September 23, 2019
  2. European Service Module NASA
  3. Lockheed Martin Corporation Form 10-K for 2025 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (company filing), January 29, 2026
  4. Global Positioning System (GPS) Satellites Lockheed Martin
  5. Weather & Earth Science Lockheed Martin