Martin Marietta Gets $1.8-Billion NASA Contract

Martin Marietta Corp. today said it has been awarded a $1.8-billion contract by NASA to produce 60 additional external tanks for the space shuttle.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., ordered the tanks for delivery in the 1990s.

The award is the second portion of a procurement for the tanks. The first portion, worth $500 million, was awarded to Martin Marietta in June, 1988.

The tanks will be produced by Martin Marietta Manned Space Systems company at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans.

The first tank under the new contract is expected to be completed in late 1991 and the 60th in mid-1997. Under previous awards, 59 tanks were contracted to support shuttle operations, and 52 have been produced to date.

The external tank carries the shuttle’s liquid hydrogen fuel and liquid oxygen oxidizer and supplies them to the orbiter during lift-off and ascent.