Jamie Bennet
Lockheed Martin unveiled a 20,000-square-foot manufacturing site that will be used to assemble small satellite programs and technologies.
The company announced Friday the facility at its Waterton, Colorado, will help expedite the delivery of Tranche 1 Transport Layer satellites to the Space Development Agency.
Lockheed is currently working to complete more than 50 Transport Layer satellites for SDA. The new multimillion-dollar facility will have six configurable and scalable parallel assembly lines designed for spacecraft-level functioning, performance testing and all other stages of the communication systems’ development.
The site’s expected output capacity is 180 satellites per year. Lockheed targets to process 42 Tranche 1 satellites that will be launched in 2024.
“Lockheed Martin is committed to providing advanced satellites of different sizes and capabilities to meet our customers’ needs and support their strategy to achieve greater orbital diversity,” said Johnathon Caldwell, vice president and general manager for military space at Lockheed Martin. “This new facility is one of many investments our company has made to lower costs and to deliver scalable solutions with increased speed and agility.”
