Y
yurkin
Guest
I’m not sure if this is good news or bad. But I do know that Lockheed’s rocket is the Atlas V not the Saturn V. Who do they have write this stuff.<br /><br />Boeing-Lockheed deal in trouble<br />Project combining space rocket businesses loses steam over waning government support, cost disputes.<br />September 13, 2005: 7:34 AM EDT <br />NEW YORK (Reuters) - A plan to combine the space rocket businesses of Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. has run into unexpected financial and political hurdles, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. <br /><br />While both military suppliers say they remain committed to the proposed joint venture and continue to seek government approvals and push ahead with transition plans, new developments appear to have sapped momentum for the concept, the newspaper said, citing Pentagon and industry officials. <br /><br />Among the developments are wavering support from the Air Force and increasingly sharp disagreements about recouping certain development costs, the report said. <br /><br />"This is far from a done deal," the Journal quoted one person involved in the details as saying. The source predicted weeks of intense negotiations amid continuing uncertain support from high-ranking Pentagon officials. <br /><br />A Boeing (Research) spokesman told the newspaper "the process is progressing as we expected." A Lockheed (Research) spokesman said the government is conducting a thorough review by "asking good questions, and we are providing data to respond." <br /><br />The proposed venture is intended to help money-losing government-rocket operations by merging manufacturing and creating a joint team to blast future U.S. military, spy and civilian-research and exploration satellites into orbit. <br /><br />For government customers, the long-term goal is to reduce launch costs, though commercial launches aren't supposed to be affected. But even some a