Establishes New Space Exploration Organization

Representatives with Northrop Grumman told Aero-News last week the company has created an organization dedicated to developing and executing the company's growing list of space exploration opportunities with NASA. Art Stephenson, a former director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, has been appointed sector vice president of Space Exploration Systems to lead the new project.

The new organization will reside in the company's Integrated Systems sector and will report directly to Scott Seymour, corporate vice president and president of the Integrated Systems sector.

"Art Stephenson and his team will be dedicated to supporting our NASA space exploration customers and will work closely with our government and industry partners to achieve program goals in a safe and affordable manner," said Seymour.

A Northrop Grumman-led team -- which includes The Boeing Company as its principal subcontractor -- is competing for an opportunity to design and build NASA's new Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), a successor to the Space Shuttle that will allow humans to travel to the moon and beyond in coming decades. NASA is expected to select a CEV prime contractor by summer 2006.

Doug Young, vice president and Crew Exploration Vehicle program manager for the Northrop Grumman-Boeing team, will report to Stephenson under this new organizational structure.

Stephenson comes to Integrated Systems from Northrop Grumman's Space Technology sector, where he served as sector vice president of Directed Energy Systems. Stephenson served as director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center from 1998 until 2003. Prior to that, he was president of Oceaneering Technologies, which provides high-tech services and products to NASA, the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army and commercial customers.

FMI: www.northropgrumman.com