WASHINGTON, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Lockheed Martin Corp. has won acontract potentially valued at more than 8.1 billion dollars to build a new generation of U.S. manned spacecraft, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

Lockheed was chosen by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to develop and build the new reusable space vehicles -- resembling the bell-shaped, 1960s-vintage Apollo capsules -- initially to carry people and cargo to the orbiting International Space Station, according to the report.

But as part of NASA's audacious, long-term manned exploration vision, the Orion capsule is slated to return astronauts to the moon as early as 2020 and later to form the backbone for eventual manned missions to Mars, said the report.

Lockheed, a leading rocket maker, also plans to vie for some of those same contracts. But with Thursday's victory, Lockheed vaulted into the lead for civilian space efforts following the anticipated retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet, it added.

Lockheed said the project will generate as many as 2,300 jobs, including some 600 engineers at its Denver space facility alone. That could prompt a secondary loss for Boeing, because some of its engineers could be lured away to work on the endeavor. Enditem