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Lockheed Martin May Expand Mississippi Space & Technology Center's Mission

Posted on: Sunday, 10 August 2003, 06:00 CDT

Aug. 10--STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. -- A year after it opened, the Lockheed Martin Mississippi Space & Technology Center is still hiring workers and has been successful enough that it's looking to the possibility of expanding its mission.

"We're optimistic for expanding our functions here and it goes back to why we changed our name," said Jim Marcussen, Lockheed Martin Technical Operations site manager. "We believe that this facility is going to grow and expand into all sorts of new ventures."

The center has 140 employees: 90 in the propulsion or thermal products area and 50 in metrology, calibration or support service. It's working on three government programs, including space-based infrared early warning satellite systems for missile defense applications and four commercial programs.

"It's been challenging and it's been exciting," said Steve Hudson, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. director of the Mississippi Space & Technology Center. He said the schedule for projects has exceeded expectations, with one more commercial vehicle being ordered from Lockheed Martin than the company anticipated.

Hudson said that over the past few years the space market has been flat, but that's changing. He attributes that to the improving economy as well as the success of Lockheed's A2100 satellite, which earlier this year won a product of the year award from Frost & Sullivan, a New York-based consulting firm.

The center at Stennis Space Center's Aerospace Park opened Aug. 5, 2002. It was originally to be named the Lockheed Martin Propulsion, Thermal and Metrology Center. But the aerospace company changed the name because of the possibility it might eventually acquire additional capabilities.

The 220,000-square-foot facility designs, develops and produces propulsion systems for commercial and government uses, satellite components, thermal blankets and the framework for satellite solar panels. It expects to eventually have about 270 engineers, airframe specialists, system integration professionals and others trained in technology fields.

The center has so far built four thermal blanket sets, three of which are flying. On a given spacecraft, there can be hundreds of layered blankets ranging in size from 12 square inches to 12 square feet. Combined, they are part of a "set" that protects the spacecraft.

The most recent set was launched July 17 from Cape Canaveral, Fla., aboard the Rainbow 1 satellite atop an Atlas V. The satellite was an A2100 model, built by Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems of Newtown, Pa., for Cablevision. That communications company will use the satellite to introduce its direct-to-home broadcast services. The A2100 has a predicted service life of 18 years.

The other Stennis-built thermal blankets were on satellites for New Skies Satellites N.V. of the Netherlands and Nimiq 2 for Telesat, Canada's first direct broadcast satellite.

In May the Stennis facility delivered the propulsion thermal protection for the AMC-10 telecommunications satellite being built for SES Americom. The AMC-10 is scheduled for launch in the first quarter of 2004, and is one of three A2100 satellites being build for SES Americom of Princeton, N.J.

For the center's metrology side, that operation has spent the bulk of the past year activating the center, which is about 80 percent complete though it is already up and operating. The metrology group, which handles precision measurements, serves Lockheed Martin and has done work for the Navy, Wellman at Port Bienville and ChevronTexaco of Pascagoula.

The center is in a hiring mode and has 10 slots to fill. The metrology operation has 16 employees, and that number will double in a year. Overall, the Space & Technology Center expects to increase the number of workers to 180 by year's end.

Hudson said Lockheed has invested a lot in training and certification of workers in engineering, and said the company is finding very qualified candidates.

"The resources that have been provided by the county and the state and federal agencies here have been exemplary," said Marcussen.

Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin is the world's No. 1 defense contractor and does some $24.8 billion in sales, about 80 percent to the U.S. government. In addition to the Space & Technology Center, it has hundreds of workers at the Lockheed Martin Space Operations at Stennis, who provide scientific, engineering and technical support to NASA's test program and other agencies.

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(c) 2003, The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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