Photograph by George Sakkestad
Satellites built at the Commercial Satellite Center will sell for up to $100 million, says Joel Suty, vice president of operations for Lockheed.
By KATHERINE PETERSEN
Imagine sitting in a closed chamber for 20 days with 302-degree heat blasting in from one side and a minus-206-degree chill blowing in from the other.
That's one of the steps satellites will go through as they are tested at Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space's new Commercial Satellite Center in Sunnyvale. The chamber simulates the extremes of sunlight and perpetual darkness as a satellite roams through space.
Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space will build satellites at the new center for Lockheed Martin Telecommunications, a separate business entity, also located in Sunnyvale, which will market space-based telecommunications worldwide. The satellites, which look like boxes until they are fitted with antennas and solar arrays, will sell for $75 million to $100 million.
Work will begin in the new center in January. Lockheed Martin plans to transfer 500 employees to the Sunnyvale facility in addition and hiring 300 new workers.
The test room, so large one could get lost inside, once housed Lockheed's classified manufacturing and was almost converted into a warehouse before the company spent $65 million to jump into the global telecommunications market.
Air constantly blows through the 85,000-square-foot center to keep dirt off the space-bound satellites. The slight breeze and the 57-foot-high ceilings give a close approximation of being outside.
Once a satellite is tested for the rigors of temperature extremes, it is loaded into an acoustic chamber and subjected to 165 decibels of noise--louder than the level at which glass breaks. It is then put to the vibration test, receiving up to 45,000 pounds of thrust to resemble a rocket launch.
The satellite's final test is for focus. In a foam-walled room, the satellite is scrutinzed to make sure its beam is calibrated to hit the mark: Customers who spend $100 million on a satellite to send information to the United States will be unhappy if the energy is beamed at an ocean instead.
Once tested, satellites will be sold to companies in the telecommunications industry, such as mobile phone communications and direct-to-home satellite TV.
The initial capacity of the facility will be eight satellites a year, with an ultimate goal of 16 annually, said Joel Suty, Lockheed Martin's vice president of operations. He added that, to meet customer demand, the time to market will ultimately be reduced from the industry standard of 24 months to 12 months.
Lockheed Telecommunications will work with companies worldwide, said Lynda Kate, the company's director of communications.
"Fifty percent of the people in the world ... have never used a phone. Satellites can be used to provide phone services in areas where it's too costly, would take too long or is virtually impossible to lay down cable," she said.
The company is already working with the Asia Cellular Satellite consortium to provide phone service in southeast Asia, China and India.
Companies can also use satellites to transmit large amounts of data more quickly to enable, for example, a doctor in another country to consult with a medical clinic in the United States in real time.
The company has an expanding commercial market base and recently launched satellites for DISH Network TV and GE Americom Television Broadcasting.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, November 20, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.