Terran Orbital Corp., the high-profile maker of small satellites, is looking to Orange County’s talent pool as the company aims to produce 1,000 spacecraft per year with an eye on military and national security uses.
“In Irvine, as we’re expanding here, we have access to an incredible talent pool. We are right near JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and a lot of the other labs; you have Caltech up the road. We have a great labor pool here out in Orange County and also from LA County as well,” according to CEO Marc Bell.
Bell provided details about Terran’s (NYSE: LLAP) Irvine goals in a Nov. 12 conference call with analysts. That call followed the company’s surprise decision to set up more manufacturing in OC after abandoning a $300 million project in Florida.
Terran recently received a $100 million investment from its largest customer, aerospace and defense contracting giant Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT), in a deal that’s expected to bring further work to Terran’s base here.
The company is already among the region’s fastest-growing tech-focused businesses along with Costa Mesa-based defense contractor Anduril Industries.
Timing Everything
How did Bell explain turning Florida Space Coast’s loss into Irvine’s bonanza?
In a word: time.
“It was 36 months from the time we would have broken ground in Florida through the time it would have been open. And we saw no path forward to breaking ground anytime soon,” Bell said on the conference call following the release of third-quarter earnings.
While Terran is headquartered in Boca Raton, Fla., it already has had an extensive presence in OC including Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems Inc. on Barranca Parkway in Irvine. The local Tyvak unit has been absorbed into the parent company under the Terran name.
It has been building up its OC presence for months, though the number of OC jobs to be created remains to be seen.
Terran Orbital’s current headcount is 463 and a company spokesperson told the Business Journal “that number will continue to grow in the coming months.”
Some 2,100 jobs were to have been created in Florida.
Bell also mentioned the company’s growing reliance on robotics, possibly reducing the number of employees needed.
The Terran CEO, speaking to industry website SpaceNews on Nov. 14, said the company is now focusing on the national defense security market.
Defense Department
Terran Orbital wants to produce larger “buses,” ranging from 150 to 500 kilograms, in order to compete for Defense Department, U.S. intelligence agencies and NASA contracts, according to SpaceNews. The body of a satellite, also known as the bus of a satellite, holds the scientific equipment and other necessary components of the satellite.
The number of satellites to be produced by Terran is another key question.
Stock financial analysts asked Terran leadership during the conference call about the goal to “support” 1,000 satellites a year.
“We’ll have announcements later on next year about some other facilities here in Irvine that will be able to keep up with demand. It’s not just the capacity, it’s not just assembly space, but it’s also module production space and automation as we continue to vertically integrate,” Bell responded.
He added: “We’re spending a lot of money on robotics, advanced engineering, in order to make those components easier and faster to make and because that then we need more additional space for the assembly of these satellites. So, we’ll easily get to the 1,000 [satellite] number.”
Terran Orbital has added over 140,000 square feet of manufacturing and office space in Irvine in the past 12 months, and the company ”will continue to grow our headcount,” Bell told the analysts. Terran had 463 employees as of this month, a Terran spokesperson said.
