Lockheed Martin has begun preliminary construction for a new USD$350 million facility that will produce next-generation satellites, as well as house launch and test operations.
The new 266,000 sq. ft. Gateway Center will include a high bay clean room capable of building satellites of various sizes simultaneously. The facility will have a paperless, digitally-enabled production environment, with rapidly-reconfigurable production lines. The facility’s test capabilities will include a thermal vacuum chamber to simulate the harsh environment of space, an anechoic chamber for testing sensors and communications systems and a test operations and analysis center. As an example of the size of the facility, the clean room would be capable of housing more than six million gallons of water, the equivalent of nine Olympic-sized swimming pools.
The Gateway Center will also be certified to support vital national security missions.
“We'll be able to build satellites that communicate with front-line troops, explore other planets, and support unique missions,” said Rick Ambrose, executive VP 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."
The Gateway Center, located on the company's Waterton Canyon campus near Denver, Colorado, will also employ 3D printing, virtual reality design and smart payload technologies, Ambrose added.
Spacecraft currently in production at the Waterton Canyon site include the Air Force's GPS III satellites, NASA's InSight Mars lander, NOAA's GOES-R Series weather satellites and commercial communications satellites.
Lockheed Martin expects the construction effort to employ a total of 1,500 contractors. Companies selected by Lockheed Martin for the project include Hensel Phelps as the general contractor, ETS-Lindgren for anechoic chamber design and construction and Matrix PDM Engineering and Dynavac for thermal vacuum chamber design and construction.
The Gateway Center is slated for completion in 2020.
For more information, visit the Lockheed Martin website.