Archbald, PA, February 4th, 2010 -- Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] donated $8,000 to the Forest City school district in Forest City, PA, and $13,000 to the Lakeland school district in Jermyn, PA, in support of a pre-engineering curriculum called Project Lead The Way.

Project Lead The Way is a national, not-for-profit educational program that gives middle and high school students the rigorous ground-level education needed to develop strong backgrounds in science and engineering.

PALO ALTO, Calif., February 3rd, 2010 -- Two state-of-the art solar instruments built at the Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory of the Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] Advanced Technology Center (ATC) in Palo Alto are awaiting launch on Feb. 9, 2010 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA), a suite of four telescopes, will provide an unprecedented view of the solar corona, taking images that span at least 1.3 solar diameters in multiple wavelengths nearly simultaneously, at a resolution of about one arc-second and at a cadence of ten seconds or better. The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI), designed in collaboration with Professor Philip Scherrer, HMI Principal Investigator, and other scientists at Stanford University, will study the origin of solar variability and attempt to characterize and understand the Sun’s interior and magnetic activity.

“This is a very significant step for the solar physics community. Having AIA on the launch pad means we’re getting very close to the time when this instrument will be providing the kind of data we need to unravel mysteries of the Sun that have been just beyond our grasp,” said physicist – and Principal Investigator of AIA – Dr. Alan Title of the ATC. “Looking at the full Sun in a broad range of temperature bands every 10 seconds will give us unprecedented insight into the processes that determine the evolution of the corona.”

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., February 3rd, 2010 -- Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) Space Systems Company announced today that it has named Mathew “Mat” J. Joyce vice president and program manager for Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD).

“Lockheed Martin is committed to helping our Missile Defense Agency customer meet its objectives for GMD Development and Sustainment,” said Joanne M. Maguire, executive vice president, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company. “Mat Joyce brings the requisite experience and track record necessary to assume the on-going GMD operations and sustainment challenges as well as future development and production requirements.”

Bethesda, MD, February 3rd, 2010 -- Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) today released the following statement regarding the FY2011 budget request to cancel the Orion Project as part of NASA’s Constellation Program:

We are keenly disappointed in the Administration's budget proposal for NASA that would cancel Project Orion as part of an elimination of NASA's Constellation Program. Orion’s maturity is evident in its readiness for a first test flight in a matter of weeks. In fact, Orion can be ready for crewed flights to low Earth orbit and other exploration missions as early as 2013, thus narrowing the gap in U.S. human space flight capability when the shuttle is retired later this year.

FORT WORTH, Texas, February 2nd, 2010 -- A Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] F-35B Lightning II short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) stealth fighter today became the fifth F-35 to begin flight operations.

The jet, known as BF-3, departed the runway near Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth plant at 4:02 p.m. CST for its first flight. During the one-hour sortie, F-35 Chief Test Pilot Jon Beesley tested the aircraft’s handling qualities, engine functionality, landing gear operation and basic subsystem performance.