Good news for Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) investors! Last week, the Pentagon announced that it has awarded the defense giant $977.5 million to continue development of Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared (Next-Gen OPIR) satellites for early warning and tracking of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and theater ballistic missile launches.

Bad news for Lockheed Martin investors: Lockheed won't be building as many satellites as it thought.

For more than a decade, the Pentagon has employed Space Based Infrared System satellites for missile defense -- massive five-ton satellites placed in geosynchronous earth (GEO) and highly elliptical orbits (HEO) thousands of miles above Earth's surface, scanning Earth for signs of missile ballistic launches.

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Source Fool.com