On Jul. 25, 1993, Sandia Corp. became a Martin Marietta company, leaving the AT&T fold for the first time. On Mar. 15, 1995, Martin Marietta merged with Lockheed Corp. to become Lockheed Martin.

Both the company and the department were trying to move from military work to civilian projects. Sandia, which had specialized in nuclear weapons research, was one of the largest of the government’s network of some 700 military technology labs.