Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] and Dulles, Va.-based Orbital Sciences will join forces to compete for a contract to build NASA’s Orbital Space Plane. Lockheed Martin will lead the team as the prime contractor. Northrop Grumman [NYSE: NOR] also will join the effort, along with Orbital Sciences, as a principal team member. NASA is expected to choose a prime contractor in August of 2004. The space plane, to be launched into space aboard an Atlas V or Delta IV rocket, would allow for the rescue of a crew from the International Space Station as soon as 2008.