York Space Systems is expanding. This morning, the Denver, CO-based satellite manufacturer announced that it will open the doors to a fourth production facility, dubbed Potomac, and start cranking out buses by Q4.
“Our new Potomac facility represents a significant milestone in York’s growth trajectory, driven by steadily increasing demand from new and existing customers,” CEO Dirk Wallinger said in a release.
Bucking bespoke
York’s philosophy for building satellites revolves around a standard bus that can be outfitted with whatever payloads a customer requires, rather than designing a tailored bus for each mission. The result: the ability to mass-produce buses for a lower price.
The company has won major manufacturing deals with a variety of government and commercial customers, including a pair of contracts worth $582M combined to build satellites for Tranche 1 of the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) national security architecture. AE Industrial acquired a majority stake of York last year in a deal that valued the company at ~$1.13B.
The new digs
York is investing $20M in the new 60,000 sq ft facility it says will boost its overall manufacturing capacity to 1,000 satellite buses per year.
- York noted that the additional capacity isn’t necessary to meet its current backlog of commercial and government contracts.
On top of the manufacturing capabilities, the new spot will also increase York’s testing capacity and inventory infrastructure.
