World's Largest Commercial Satellite Factory
Boeing is the world's leading manufacturer of geostationary satellites. The company's satellite factory, headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., currently manufactures the spin-stabilized Boeing 376 satellite, the body-stabilized Boeing 601 satellite, the powerful body-stabilized Boeing 702, the world's most powerful communications satellite, and two lines of satellites designed to support mobile communications. For more than three years, Boeing launched an average of nearly one satellite per month, and at any given time more than a dozen of these powerful spacecraft are in varying stages of production.
Every satellite is designed, manufactured, and shipped from the Boeing Integration and Test Complex, which is also located in El Segundo, Calif. Encompassing an area of nearly 840,000 square feet, this state-of-the-art facility is the largest dedicated satellite factory in the world.
Within the walls of the Integration and Test Complex, virtually every aspect of satellite manufacture is accomplished, such as design, fabrication, and component integration, as well as testing at the unit, subsystem, and completed spacecraft levels. At the conclusion of this assembly-line process, most satellites are packed into shipping containers and transported directly to nearby Los Angeles International Airport for flights to launch sites around the world.
With the 1963 launch of Syncom, the world's first commercial communications satellite, Boeing entered the satellite manufacturing business, and the rigorous processes and quality control methods in use today are those which have been refined over more than three decades of manufacturing experience gained through the construction of more than 200 commercial communications satellites, in addition to government satellites and weather spacecraft and instrumentation.
Relying on established spacecraft designs which form the basis for a Boeing satellite, engineers then build the customized payloads and antennas, thus leveraging the economies possible with a standardized manufacturing process while maintaining flexibility in design. The result: a satellite backed by nearly 2,000 years of in-orbit experience.
In order to achieve a production-line process, the Integration and Test Complex is organized into areas of specialization, such as structures, propulsion, payload integration and test, antenna fabrication, solar array assembly, and spacecraft integration and test. As a spacecraft is constructed, it passes through each of these areas, which are referred to as "bays." When a spacecraft finally enters the 60-foot High Bay, it undergoes final integration and test before shipment to the launch site. Specialized test equipment, alignment tools, and large rollover fixtures, which allow technicians to reposition the spacecraft for easy access, are featured in the High Bay.
In 1998 the High Bay was expanded by adding 22,000 square feet, which includes a state-of-the-art combination anechoic/near-field chamber and a thermal stress test facility. The High Bay now contains two anechoic chambers, used to test the communications payload, and shield the unit under test from outside radio waves that might interfere with the test. The near-field range is used to check the beam pattern of a spacecraft by simulating the transmission of a communications beam from geosynchronous orbit to Earth.
The factory also contains a Mass Properties Laboratory, which performs final weighing and spin balancing of spacecraft to ensure it meets weight, center-of-gravity, dynamic balance, and moment-of-inertia requirements. The spin rates used in testing vary between 30 and 100 rpm.
Rigorous thermal, vibration, and shock testing is performed in the Space Simulation Laboratory. The thermal vacuum chambers and vibration equipment enable Boeing to simulate the environmental rigors the spacecraft will encounter during launch and throughout its life in space.
The large vibration table is capable of simulating forces of the rocket booster as it lifts off from the launch pad. The spacecraft is vibrated in different directions and with a range of intensities to verify the soundness of its design and quality of workmanship.
Thermal vacuum chambers are used to simulate the environment of space: the heat from the sun and the coldness and vacuum of space. There are four chambers in the Space Simulation Laboratory. The largest of these is 15 feet in diameter and 35 feet high. The chambers can attain a vacuum of 10-7 torr (mm of mercury), with chamber wall temperatures ranging from +250°F to -320°F, using liquid nitrogen as the cooling medium. Smaller chambers are also located throughout the factory for subsystem environmental testing.
In addition, a thermal cycling chamber is available for spacecraft testing. The thermal chamber is approximately 25 feet long, 25 feet wide, and 35 feet high, and can be cycled from +190°F to -22°F. These thermal cycles are accomplished with the chamber at normal atmospheric pressure.
In 1998 the Space Simulation Laboratory was also expanded to include a new thermal vacuum chamber. Weighing one million pounds, this mailbox-shaped chamber is the largest of its kind and can simultaneously test two Boeing 702 satellites. The working test space inside the chamber is 63,000 cubic feet and measures 35 feet wide, 45 feet deep, and 40 feet high at the center. The chamber can attain temperatures ranging from +250°F to -300°F. Additional space behind the shroud allows maintenance and access to the hundreds of wire bundles that relay spacecraft test information through the chamber wall via hermetically sealed feed-throughs.
The origins of the Integration and Test Complex can be traced back to the early 1940s. Prior to Boeing, the factory was owned by The American Motors Corporation for production of the Nash Rambler automobile, which is no longer being built.
In 1955, Hughes purchased the 500,000-square-foot facility for $3 million and methodically began its evolution from an automobile manufacturing plant to today's Boeing Integration and Test Complex. Major modifications to the facility in 1992, which included the consolidation of the Integrated Satellite Factory and company wide restructuring, resulted in an improvement in satellite manufacturing productivity of approximately 49% and reduced cycle time from satellite order to delivery of approximately 30%.
Boeing is committed to owning and operating a state-of-the-art, dedicated satellite factory. The benefits are twofold: not only is the company poised to support future demand, but the ultimate, and most important benefit, is the delivery of a final satellite or instrument which excels in technical design, operational ability, and reliability.
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