York Space Systems Advances Capability To Accelerate Spacecraft Production
York Space Systems, a Denver-based firm, stated that it is planning to advance the ability of plants engaged in the production of S-Class satellites. Chuck Beames, York’s Executive Chairman, stated that presently about 10–12 satellites are manufactured by the company every year. While in the upcoming year, York will manufacture about 50 satellites, it holds plans to produce hundreds of satellites in the forthcoming period.
Beames stated that the foremost satellite by York in May is functioning properly and this has helped the company to attract more agreements. Furthermore, he said, “Flight heritage is a huge risk reducer.” York is planning to accelerate its manufacturing capability by expanding its plants. Beames proclaimed that the company holds the record of completing its assigned production within the period of less than 1 Year of agreements’ finalization. The firm’s plans are to reduce this time to 4 Months. Beames stated, “The military shows exceptional interest in that as it is operationally responsive.” Moreover, even commercial clients want rapid delivery “as time is money.”
York is engaged in providing three-axis stabilized S-Class satellites to commercial and government clients. While these satellites are intended for 5-year missions and the company charges approximately $1 Million for the same, the instruments are not included in this price as they are either provided by the clients or the responsibility of buying and integrating these instruments is given to York.
On a similar note, recently Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, L3Harris, and Leidos were offered the deal by the Missile Defense Agency (MDA). The agency stated that the latest deal that offers $20 Million to each firm is focused on producing the space sensor with a capability to track ballistic and hypersonic missiles. MDA stated that the selection was done from the 12 proposals intended for the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor program.