1. BY BLAKE SAULNIER Lockheed Martin

2. History Lockheed Corporation and Martin Marietta talked about merging the two companies in march 1994, the companies announcing their $10 billion planned merger on August 30, 1994. March 15, 1995 the two companies officially became Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin provided NASA with measurements in imperial force units when metric was required, resulting in the loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter at a cost of $125 million.

3. Continued History… In 2001, Lockheed Martin won the contract to build the F-35 Lightning II; this was largest fighter aircraft procurement project since the F-16, with an initial order of 3,000 worth $200 billion before export orders. On August 31, 2006, Lockheed Martin won a $3.9 billion contract from NASA to design and build the CEV capsule, also known as Orion – the next spacecraft for human flight. Next six years 1/3 of the employees will be retiring.

4. Location! Headquarters located in Bethesda, Maryland, USA. The U.S. locations are in Texas, Georgia, California, South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Singapore, India, Taiwan, Australia, South Korea, Japan. All over Europe. Turkey. Also all over the UK.

5. Employees 140,000 employees of 2009 Lockheed’s final net income is 3.024 billion. “Lockheed Martin believes that creating a better world starts at the local level.” They are involved in everything from food drives and homeless shelters, to fund-raising events for medical research, to environmental projects that enhance parks and other public spaces.

6. Over the past few years, Lockheed Martin employees have logged millions of volunteer hours in their communities -- 1.4 million in 2009!