In September 1994, Adamson joined Lockheed Corporation as Executive Vice President of Lockheed Engineering and Science Company (LESC) where he was shortly promoted to president and CEO. In late 1995 he was selected by Lockheed Martin to start up and become the first COO of the United Space Alliance (USA), a joint venture with Rockwell International. USA subsequently won the Space Flight Operations Contract with NASA to operate the Space Shuttle Program and grew to $1.5 billion annual revenue in the first year.