Earlier this year NASA awarded two $28 million contracts to a Northrop Grumman-Boeing (NGB) team and to a Lockheed Martin-led team, to perform trade studies for the development of a human-rated spacecraft, the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV).

The two teams are competing to design and build the space agency’s planned CEV, that will carry astronauts to the moon, Mars and beyond in coming decades. The competition is expected to result in a Phase 2 contract award, in early 2006, to a single-contractor team to design and produce the CEV.

The nation’s Vision for Space Exploration calls for the CEV to carry up to six astronauts to low-Earth orbit soon after the Space Shuttle fleet is retired in 2010, and then on to the moon as early as 2018.

NASA’s draft Call for Improvements (CFI) will ask the two competing teams to provide feedback on requested requirements. The final CFI is expected to be issued in October and will require the teams’ proposals to reflect, among other things, closing the gap between the planned space shuttle fleet retirement in 2010 and the first crewed CEV mission, and to broaden the CEV mission to include servicing the International Space Station.

“We’ve committed our best people and resources to this program,” said Keith Reiley, deputy program manager for the NGB team. “We are confident we can offer NASA a safe, affordable Crew Exploration Vehicle for low–Earth orbit and lunar missions.”

Northrop Grumman currently serves as the NGB team’s prime contractor, with Boeing as its teammate and principal subcontractor. If the team wins the CEV competition, this structure will also apply during the initial phases of the Crew Exploration Vehicle program, which will demonstrate the vehicle’s ability to operate safely with astronauts in low-Earth orbit and beyond. During subsequent phases of the architectureimplementation, which will focus on lunar exploration missions, Boeing will serve as the prime contractor for those system elements that will focus on lunar exploration missions with Northrop Grumman serving as its teammate and principal subcontractor.