Lockheed Martin's Small Satellite Factory Takes Off

Lockheed Martin has opened a new factory at its Waterton campus near Denver, Colorado, dedicated to assembling small satellites. The facility has the capacity to manufacture 180 small satellites per year and features six parallel assembly lines. The first satellites to be produced at the factory are for the U.S. Space Force's Space Development Agency, with plans to build a mesh network of data transport and missile-detection sensor satellites in low Earth orbit. The move towards small satellites reflects the industry's shift towards proliferated architectures, with government customers expressing a preference for smaller, more proliferated systems. The facility can also be configured to assemble classified satellites for the Department of Defense and the intelligence community.