Lockheed Martin joins bidding to supply International Space Station

Louisville-based Sierra Nevada Space Systems is getting another competitor for the billions of dollars in International Space Station cargo supply contracts NASA is planning to award later this year.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., based in Jefferson County, on Thursday announced plans to bid on the contracts. The Denver Business Journal reports that Lockheed is proposing a new Jupiter spacecraft as well as an “Exoliner” cargo module.

Orbital Sciences and SpaceX ferry cargo like experiments and supplies to and from the space station now under contracts totaling about $3.5 billion. But a second round of contracts — as large as $14 billion according to some estimates — is slated to be awarded in June and cover trips to the ISS from 2017 to 2024.

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In addition to Lockheed, Orbital Sciences and SpaceX, Sierra Nevada and Boeing have said they’ll vie for the contracts, which are expected to be awarded to multiple companies.

Nevada-based Sierra Nevada Corp., which bases its Space Systems division in Louisville, is proposing to use an unmanned version of its Dream Chaser spacecraft. The company lost out to Boeing and SpaceX on $6.8 billion of contracts to send crewed flights to the ISS last year.