Northrop Grumman Corp. has broken ground on a new $20 million Maryland Space Assembly and Test facility on the back of its Baltimore campus adjacent to Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.

The 25,000 ft² building is designed to handle space payload integration programs. The M-SAT space assembly, integration, and test building will feature the largest cleanroom facility on the company’s Baltimore campus, a three-story high-bay area that will house operations for space programs. Northrop Grumman currently develops and delivers space payloads at its Baltimore campus utilizing several smaller space assembly facilities. This new, larger building will allow for expanded payload production to meet growth in the company’s space business.

“Northrop Grumman is committed to finding more affordable solutions to the nation’s needs for critical space systems,” says Gloria Flach, corporate vice president and president, Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems. “This new M-SAT facility will enable us to meet our customers’ space integration, assembly and test requirements more efficiently and affordably.”

The building will house up to 80 engineers and technicians working on space systems assembly, integration and test. The facility will also contain office space for collating the integration and test staff, and a lab space for test bed development and testing. Construction of the new facility is being led by Patriot Contractors LLC, a Maryland-based general contractor, and is expected to be completed during the summer of 2015.

Northrop Grumman has designed and produced payloads, sensors, systems, and solutions for use in space for more than 50 years. These included the Gemini Rendezvous Radar Pod and the Apollo 11 Lunar Camera that broadcast man’s first steps on the moon. The company’s current programs include the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, the Defense Support Program, the Space-Based Infrared System, and the James Webb Space Telescope (which is being developed in a Class 10,000 cleanroom at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.).

Release Date: July 14, 2014
Source: Northrop Grumman