Lockheed Martin Opens Expansion for GPS III Manufacturing

July 1, 2010

Lockheed Martin today opened the doors to new facilities at its Space Systems Company operations in Newtown, Pennsylvania. The $24 million expansion project includes an 18,800-square-foot high bay addition at the west end of the facility’s Product Team Building that expands Lockheed Martin’s satellite manufacturing capability, including the next-generation GPS III.

Ribbon-cutting ceremonies with community leaders and customers were held today for the $24 million expansion project, which includes a new conference center in addition to the improved satellite manufacturing capabilities. The high bay addition houses a near-field antenna range and antenna assembly clean room for manufacturing of GPS components, and a passive inter-modulation chamber to test the frequency bands of all components produced in Newtown.

According to Lockheed Martin, the satellite high bay addition will ensure quality manufacturing and testing of all satellite components produced at Newtown, including the next-generation GPS III.

Lockheed Martin’s Newtown facility serves as the headquarters for Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems, the U.S. Air Force’s GPS III Space Segment program and NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R-Series (GOES-R) program. LMCSS has delivered 36 commercial communications satellites based on the A2100 platform to customers world-wide.

The GPS III and GOES-R programs were awarded to Lockheed Martin in May 2008 and July 2009, respectively. The facility also builds components, subsystems and systems for all Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company (LMSSC) lines of business, including military satellite communications programs such as the U.S. Air Force’s Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) system and the U.S. Navy’s Mobile User Objective System (MUOS).

Also part of the expansion is the new 15,000-square-foot multi-purpose Patriot Center will facilitate large-scale meetings such as spacecraft program design reviews, demonstration initiatives, and customer events. The meeting facility accommodates up to 250 people and offers users the ability to subdivide the space into separate meeting rooms as well as use modernized audio visual and information technology equipment.

Both projects are designed to be certified under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System. LEED provides a suite of standards for environmentally sustainable construction, and LEED certified buildings typically use resources more efficiently when compared to conventional buildings.

The Newtown facility is part of LMSSC, a major operating unit of Lockheed Martin Corporation. LMSSC designs and develops, tests, manufactures and operates a full spectrum of advanced-technology systems for national security and military, civil government and commercial customers. Chief products include human space flight systems; remote sensing, navigation, meteorological and communications satellites and instruments; space observatories and interplanetary spacecraft; laser radar; ballistic missiles; missile defense systems; and nanotechnology research and development.