Belgian space company Aerospacelab has recently opened its first satellite factory in the US, near Los Angeles, to meet the growing demands of the local space industry, including the US government and military.
Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Mont-Saint-Guibert in Wallonia, Aerospacelab specialises in manufacturing, deploying, and operating space satellites.
Now with more than 200 employees, Aerospacelab manufactures its satellites in a facility in Monnet in Ottignies-Louvain-La-Neuve, with plans confirmed for another "megafactory" in Charleroi (the world’s third largest satellite manufacturing facility, scheduled to begin operations in 2026).
The company first opened an office in the US last year, in Palo Alto. It has now opened the doors of the first factory designed to cater to its growing US customer base. The 3,250 m2 facility is equipped with the latest technology and is capable of producing two satellites per week. It is intended that the factory will help to ramp up satellite production both for US customers and for Aerospacelab's in house satellite network.
"In the US, we will mainly manufacture communication and Earth observation satellites," CEO Benoît Deper told L'Echo. "These will be unlike the ones produced in Louvain-la-Neuve and soon Charleroi, but tailored to the American market's assembly, integration and testing specifications and also to its unique technological and regulatory requirements."
Aerospacelab said it will begin assembly, integration and testing of a satellite system for customer Xona Space Systems in the new factory in the fourth quarter of this year.
