AEROSPACE INDUSTRY
UPDATE
August
2017
McIlvaine Company
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Lockheed Martin Invests in Satellite Production Facility
Lockheed Martin
Begins Building $350 Million Satellite Facility in Jeffco, CO
Lockheed Martin
Invests in Satellite Production Facility
The 266,000 sq. ft. 'factory of the future' will speed production, lower costs
and includes a high bay cleanroom capable of simultaneously building a spectrum
of satellites – micro to macro.
Preliminary construction is underway on a US$350 million Lockheed Martin
facility that will produce next-generation satellites.
The new facility, located on the company's Waterton Canyon campus near Denver,
is the latest step in an ongoing transformation to provide future missions at
reduced cost and cycle time.
The new Gateway Center, slated for completion in 2020, includes a
state-of-the-art high bay cleanroom capable of simultaneously building a
spectrum of satellites from micro to macro.
The facility's paperless, digitally-enabled production environment incorporates
rapidly-reconfigurable production lines and advanced test capability.
It includes an expansive thermal vacuum chamber to simulate the harsh
environment of space, an anechoic chamber for highly perceptive testing of
sensors and communications systems, and an advanced test operations and analysis
center.
The Gateway Center will be certified to security standards required to support
vital national security missions.
“This is our factory of the future: agile, efficient and packed with
innovations. We'll be able to build satellites that communicate with front-line
troops, explore other planets, and support unique missions,” said Rick Ambrose,
executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Space Systems.
“You could fit the Space Shuttle in the high bay with room to spare. That kind
of size and versatility means we'll be able to maximize economies of scale, and
with all of our test chambers under one roof, we can streamline and speed
production.”
Lockheed Martin expects the construction effort to employ a total of 1,500
contractors during the three-year construction phase.
Companies selected by Lockheed Martin for the project include Hensel Phelps as
the general contractor, Matrix PDM Engineering and Dynavac for thermal vacuum
chamber design and construction, and ETS-Lindgren for anechoic chamber design
and construction.
Lockheed Martin
Begins Building $350 Million Satellite Facility in Jeffco, CO
Lockheed Martin Corp. has started construction on a new $350 million satellite
manufacturing facility at its Waterton Canyon campus in Jefferson County.
Lockheed Martin said its new 266,000-square-foot Gateway Center satellite plant
will be completed in 2020. Lockheed Martin Corp. said it's started construction
on a new $350 million facility that… more
The new facility is part of the ongoing transformation and expansion of the
foothills campus, which is the headquarters of aerospace and defense company's
Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. (LMSS) division.
Construction is expected to employ a total of 1,500 contractors over the course
of three years, the company said.
LMSS has added more than 750 local jobs since 2014, and it currently has about
350 job openings.
The new building will accommodate that recent growth and new future projects,
the company said.
"This is our factory of the future: agile, efficient and packed with
innovations. We'll be able to build satellites that communicate with front-line
troops, explore other planets, and support unique missions," said Rick Ambrose,
executive vice president of LMSS, in a statement. "You could fit the Space
Shuttle in the high bay with room to spare. That kind of size and versatility
means we'll be able to maximize economies of scale, and with all of our test
chambers under one roof, we can streamline and speed production."
The company has other cleanrooms and satellite production facilities on the
campus, but they're all typically being used, LMSS spokesman Matt Kramer said.
The company is in the midst of building four large global positioning satellites
for the U.S. Air Force, weather satellites, and NASA's Insight lander that's
scheduled to launch on a mission to Mars next year.
Adding another large satellite cleanroom and production facility will let the
company quickly start on future commercial or federal government satellite
projects it expects, Kramer said.
The new plant is designed to use 3-D printing, digital design and virtual
reality to make satellite construction more efficient.
The Gateway Center cleanroom will fit five large-scale satellites being built
simultaneously. It's also designed to be flexible enough for use in
manufacturing small satellites, too, the company said.
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