To Mars and back

Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. were among eight companies winning $6 million in NASA contracts to help develop the architecture of space transportation systems that will once again send astronauts to the moon and -- one day -- to Mars.

Each contract calls for initial development of a crew exploration vehicle, the first space transportation system in NASA's Project Constellation's architecture.

Other $6 million contract winners are: Andrews Space Inc., Seattle; Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Inc., Cambridge, Mass.; Orbital Sciences Corp., Dulles, Va.; Schafer Corp., Chelmsford, Mass.; and Transformation Space Corp., Menlo Park, Calif.