(October 22, 2020 – New York City) – Space & Satellite Professionals International (SSPI) today released The Spacecraft Assembly Line, its newest Better Satellite World video. It describes how OneWeb Satellites has brought the Ford assembly line model to satellite manufacturing.
The business of space is changing as companies begin putting dozens or hundreds or thousands of satellites in orbit. Space is nothing like the roads traveled by Ford’s Model T. It is airless, freezing cold and blazing hot, and flooded with radiation. Building for it is hard, but the assembly line has come to the manufacturing of satellites, and nothing will ever be the same again. In a new factory near Cape Canaveral, Florida, OneWeb Satellites operates the most automated assembly lines in the business, where engineers, technicians, tools and robotics take part in a complex dance of creation.
“The OneWeb Satellites factory on the Space Coast was the first high-volume manufacturing line for communications satellites in history,” said executive director Robert Bell. “The processes and technologies they have pioneered are rapidly becoming key to the explosive growth of LEO capacity on orbit.”
The Spacecraft Assembly Line debuted at SSPI’s 2020 Future Leaders Celebration on October 6. You can watch it now on SSPI’s website and on Youtube.
About SSPI
Founded in 1983, Space & Satellite Professionals International (www.sspi.org) is on a mission to make the space and satellite industry one of the world’s best at attracting and engaging the talent that powers innovation. The space and satellite business has never seen a time of greater experimentation and disruption than we see today. Investment is the fuel for transformation, but people are the engine. SSPI helps the industry attract, develop and retain the talented people it needs to keep the engine turning. People who connect through high-profile events and gain recognition from prestigious awards. People who rely on SSPI for a broader understanding of the industry as much as for individual networking and career mentoring. From young people seeking a career path to industry veterans with wisdom to share, SSPI connects them all.
Talent, investment and opportunity flow to industries that make a difference. SSPI is the only organization that also promotes the enormous value of space and satellite through dramatic stories of our technologies and companies making a better world. Those stories overturn misconceptions about the industry that hold it back. They inspire our people and attract new ones to the industry. They help justify investment and give new customers a reason to care about our services and products. Through the stories we tell and the people we serve, SSPI inspires the growth of the $1 trillion space economy of the future.
For More Information
Victoria Krisman
Communications Manager
Space & Satellite Professionals International
vkrisman@sspi.org