York Systems to Generate 1,000 Spacecraft Per Year With New Fourth Facility
York Space Systems just doubled its satellite production capacity to meet a surge of demand. The Denver-based firm announced Monday (August 14) that it finished construction on its fourth spacecraft production facility, located in the Denver Tech Center about 10 minutes from the company’s headquarters.
“Our new ‘Potomac’ facility represents a significant milestone in York’s growth trajectory, driven by steadily increasing demand from new and existing customers,” Dirk Wallinger, CEO of York Space Systems, said in a company statement.
The four facilities together should produce more than 1,000 spacecraft a year, including York’s LX-CLASS spacecraft, which is built for applications ranging from Earth observation to remote proximity operations. Advanced cybersecurity and encryption systems on board are meant to attract military customers, according to materials from York.
Demand has in fact expanded so quickly that only about 18 months ago, York announced it had a second facility ready “for a rapid increase in production capacity.” Now the newest, fourth facility will include 60,000 additional square feet of space, including test bays, cranes, and trailer docks for shipping and receiving. Full capacity should be reached by Q4 2023.
One of the principal factors behind York’s rapid growth is a big award from the Department of Defense. Its Space Development Agency (SDA) awarded York $382 million in 2022 for 42 “Tranche 1” satellites to join a growing network of military satellites.
York and Lockheed Martin together were responsible for both Tranche 0 and Tranche 1 of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, a low Earth orbit satellite constellation intended to detect and track missiles. Tranche 0 satellites started to be launched earlier this year; Tranche 1 will enhance the constellation with tactical data links and better missile detection when launches begin in 2024, the SDA has said.
In October 2022, York also won an SDA contract valued at $200 million for 12 satellites for the Tranche 1 Demonstration and Experimentation System (T1DES) program, which will fly experimental military communications payloads in space.
In addition to government contracts, York’s growth was also fueled by AE Industrial Partners, which acquired a majority stake in York last year, valuing the company then at $1.125 billion. AE is a huge private equity firm that also holds large portions of space companies like Sierra Space, Firefly, and (prior to bankruptcy proceedings) Virgin Orbit.
York Space itself went on to acquire Emergent Space Technologies in June 2023, acquiring technology for “developing and fielding mission software and guidance, navigation and control (GN&C) solutions for multi-spacecraft missions,” company officials wrote at the time.
“[While] York’s existing production facilities are sufficient to support current Space Force and commercial contracts with excess capacity, the new ‘Potomac’ facility will provide the production capacity to ensure future government and commercial customers will continue to enjoy on-time deliveries, greater technical performance, and even lower costs,” company officials said in the August 14 statement.
