Lunar lander will be assembled at KSC

NASA illustration of lunar lander.

The next lunar lander will be assembled at Kennedy Space Center, helping alleviate possible job losses after the shuttle program ends in 2010.

Funding for the Constellation program, however, won't reach NASA's ten centers until 2011, so NASA officials still worry about losing key personnel.

The Tuesday announcement was clearly good news for KSC, said U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a veteran of a 1986 shuttle flight and a long-time proponent of human and unmanned space exploration.

"Tuesday's NASA announcement means Florida will remain a lead center for the important work of our nation in exploring outer space and for improving life here on earth through the space program’s technological advances," said Nelson.


Other work for KSC announced Tuesday:

Support lunar architecture work for Constellation Program system engineer

Ground operations and assembly for Orion Block 1 and Ares I low Earth orbit operations phase

Ares V ground processing, launch operations and recovery support during
design, development, test and engineering

Final assembly of and ground processing support for human lunar lander

Lunar surface habitat management and integration

Lead for lunar surface in-situ resource utilization systems

Support surface systems logistics concepts



Click here to see a list of tasks handed out to NASA's ten centers.