Lockheed Martin will build the Orion spacecraft for as many as 12 moon missions for NASA after a $2.7 billion contract was awarded Monday -- and the work will be managed at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

"This contract secures Orion production through the next decade, demonstrating NASA's commitment to establishing a sustainable presence at the moon to bring back new knowledge and prepare for sending astronauts to Mars," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.

News of this contract comes about a month after the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., was tapped to oversee development of a moon lander -- a vehicle separate from the Orion fleet. That decision drew ire from many in Texas, especially since Johnson was in charge of the lunar lander program during the Apollo missions.

"This is a great day for the men and women at Johnson Space Center," U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, said in a statement. "They are crucial to our national space program, and have an undeniable legacy and record of success in advancing America's leadership in the human exploration of space."

Under NASA's current plans, the Orion capsules are vital to the agency's new plan to put humans on the lunar surface four years early, in 2024 instead of 2028 -- a project now known as Artemis.

NASA hopes that in 2024, an Orion spacecraft built by Lockheed will take astronauts to a mini-space station orbiting the moon, known as the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, where a lunar lander will be waiting to take astronauts to the surface.

This plan, announced earlier this year, has yet to be funded, but NASA is trying to convince Congress to provide an extra $1.6 billion in the budget year that begins Oct. 1. Bridenstine has said a total of $20 billion to $30 billion likely would be needed.

Lockheed Martin, based in Denver, Colo., already is contracted to build the first two Orion capsules. But this new contract extends their commitment to the Orion program, allowing the company to build three more capsules for the Artemis moon missions.

The first Artemis will take an uncrewed Orion around the surface of the moon. NASA has yet to set a new launch date for the mission since it became clear that problems with the rocket involved would prevent a late 2020 launch from happening.

The second Artemis mission will take Orion, with a crew on board, around the moon and the third would be the moon landing mission.

In fiscal year 2022, the space agency plans to purchase three more capsules for the moon missions through a $1.9 billion contract, and hopes to reuse several of these capsules in future missions.

For example, the capsule from the third Artemis mission could be reused in the sixth.

"This contract clearly shows NASA's commitment not only to Orion, but also to Artemis and its bold goal of sending humans to the Moon in the next five years," said Rick Ambrose, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Space. "We are equally committed to Orion and Artemis and producing these vehicles with a focus on cost, schedule and mission success."

Alex Stuckey writes about NASA and science for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey.

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