Under the Constellation program, Orion was intended to serve
initially as transportation to the ISS for NASA crews and be
scarred for missions beyond LEO. Now, with the introduction of
commercial crew vehicles as the preferred route to the space
station, Lockheed Martin is focusing on the deep-space mission.
Lacefield says the vehicle still can perform the station mission
with the addition of the docking system NASA is developing for
all vehicles arriving at the U.S. side of the ISS. The focus,
though, is on the early cislunar missions before moving on to
visit an asteroid and eventually Mars. Among destinations
Lockheed Martin is studying internally are Demos, the smaller of
the two Martian moons, and the L2 Lagrangian point over the
Moon's far side (AW&ST July 2, p. 22). Lacefield says his
program has benefitted from changes in NASA oversight growing
out of the commercial-crew projects, which are conducted under
Space Act procedures that are less restrictive than traditional
agency procurements. Lockheed ha