Boeing wins final Ares 1 contract

NASA awarded Boeing Co. a $799.5 million contract Wednesday to produce the avionics unit that will help guide the Ares 1 rocket.

"Finally, with the last piece of our team in place now, we can move on with development of this new system, the first step in Constellation's efforts to get Americans back to the moon by 2020," said Jeff Hanley, NASA's Constellation Program manager.

The avionics are considered the "brains" that will provide guidance, navigation and control to Ares 1 as it carries the proposed Orion spacecraft into orbit.

The contract marked the second NASA has awarded Boeing. The aerospace giant landed a $1.1 billion contract earlier this year to build the upper stage of the Ares rocket.
Brewster Shaw, Boeing's vice president and general manager for space exploration, said the company was "honored to be a part of taking America back to the moon."

While the Ares will be launched from Kennedy Space Center, most of the components will be manufactured by Boeing contractors nationally, with final integration to take place at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, the agency said.
Wednesday's announcement marked the fifth and final contract to be awarded for the Ares 1, part of the system that will replace the aging space shuttles.

Eun Kim, our Washington correspondent, filed this report.