Littleton-based Lockheed Martin Space Systems has been quietly eliminated from NASA’s multibillion-dollar competition to ferry cargo to and from the International Space Station.

The decision, which wasn’t disclosed publicly, nixes the company’s bid for a piece of the $14 billion Commercial Resupply Services-2 contract, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.

Lockheed Martin submitted its CRS-2 bid design in March: a three-part system consisting of the Jupiter reusable spacecraft, Exoliner cargo container and a long robotic arm inspired by a similar appendage on the space shuttle.

The contract would have directly impacted Colorado. Engineering, production and testing would have been done in Littleton, company spokeswoman Allison Rakes said in March.

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About 5,500 people work at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, making it Jefferson County’s largest employer, according to data from the county’s Economic Development Corporation.

Engineers at the Waterton Canyon facility would also have led mission operations for the Jupiter spacecraft, Rakes said.

NASA made its decision on Lockheed Martin’s bid over the summer, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal. Since then, it has been a topic of discussion in industry circles. One of these people said NASA made the call largely on the basis of price.

Picking the contract winners, which NASA is expected to award in November, has been postponed three times since last fall while officials weighed price and reliability issues. NASA might issue multiple CRS-2 awards for a maximum of $14 billion.

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The CRS-2 contracts, which run from 2018 to 2024, are the next phase of the cargo-delivery contracts totaling as much as $6 billion that NASA issued years ago to Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and Orbital Sciences, the predecessor company to Orbital ATK Inc.

Both Orbital ATK and SpaceX remain in the running for the latest commercial cargo awards. Both companies operate rockets and capsules designed to serve as bare-bones space-resupply systems.

Lockheed Martin’s bid proposal was more complex and technically challenging.

Also in the running are Boeing Co. and Louisville-based Sierra Nevada Space Systems, with its folding-wing reusable spaceship design called the Dream Chaser Cargo System.

The CRS-2 award would have given Lockheed Martin the technical steppingstones and financial boost to accelerate development of the Jupiter and Exoliner, with the eventual goal being a spacecraft and cargo container for enhanced use.

In other words, the company wants to create durable habitats for astronauts, in-orbit servicing vehicles and pre-positioned interstellar mini-marts that provide fuel, equipment, food and, ultimately, parts that could be assembled to build a spacecraft in zero gravity.

Rakes said Thursday that the company’s proposal was designed to be forward-thinking and advance humanity’s reach into space while also serving the space station’s needs.

“We feel that our proposal offers value today through affordable, high-capacity space station resupply, and a path forward for tomorrow through technologies that will power future human deep-space missions,” Rakes said. “Those missions will need crew habitats, servicing vehicles and autonomous in-space robotic operations. Our CRS-2 solution is designed to lay the groundwork for all of those important capabilities.”

Such technologies are expected to take decades to become operational. Of the capabilities under development, the one most likely to be adopted first is a space tug to keep aging satellites in their proper orbits after their fuel is depleted.

At a conference in Pasadena, Calif., in August, a high-ranking Lockheed Martin space official stressed the long-term implications of such ambitious technologies.

“We’re now on the threshold,” said David Markham, vice president of advanced programs for the company’s space systems unit.

Industry officials said Lockheed Martin is expected to continue pursuing many of its long-term goals, though probably at a slower pace, while it seeks other federal dollars or related commercial business.

NASA has said it might need contractors to eventually transport more than 20 tons of cargo annually. A NASA spokeswoman Thursday said the agency is in “procurement blackout” and could not comment on the bid or on Lockheed Martin’s elimination.

Dow Jones Newswires contributed to this report.

Laura Keeney: 303-954-1337, lkeeney@denverpost.com or @LauraKeeney