{"id":17554,"date":"2021-05-12T23:34:07","date_gmt":"2021-05-12T15:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/xplore-reveals-its-plans-to-open-satellite-manufacturing-facility-in-seattle-area\/"},"modified":"2021-05-12T23:34:07","modified_gmt":"2021-05-12T15:34:07","slug":"xplore-reveals-its-plans-to-open-satellite-manufacturing-facility-in-seattle-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/xplore-reveals-its-plans-to-open-satellite-manufacturing-facility-in-seattle-area\/","title":{"rendered":"Xplore reveals its plans to open satellite manufacturing facility in Seattle area"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Xplore
Xplore\u2019s new satellite manufacturing facility is in the Redmond complex that once housed Planetary Resources. (Xplore Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Xplore, a Seattle-area startup that aims to build satellites for interplanetary missions, has a new address in Redmond, Wash. \u2014 in the same office complex that once housed the Planetary Resources asteroid-mining venture.<\/p>\n

\u201cXplore\u2019s 22,000-square-foot facility is tailor-made for satellite manufacturing,\u201d Lisa Rich, the company\u2019s founder and chief operating officer, said today in a news release. \u201cIt is large, expandable and can currently accommodate the research, development, production and operation of 20 spacecraft per year.\u201d<\/p>\n

And when Rich says the location is tailor-made for satellites, she\u2019s not just speaking figuratively: Several years ago, Planetary Resources built a pair of pathfinder Earth-observation satellites on the premises, representing a significant step toward creating a fleet of asteroid-scouting spacecraft.<\/p>\n

One of the Arkyd-6 satellites was launched on an orbital demonstration mission in 2018. Unfortunately, Planetary Resources ran out of money later that year, and its assets were purchased by ConsenSys, a blockchain venture.<\/p>\n

Xplore is due to move into the facility in June to start building ESPA-class XCraft satellites suitable for rideshare missions, as well as LightCraft spacecraft for deep-space missions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe plan to build multiple Xcraft and LightCraft simultaneously,\u201d Rich said. \u201cOur clean rooms, electronic fabrication areas, meeting spaces, offices, mission operations center and enormous high bay will be put to immediate use.\u201d<\/p>\n

Xplore says it\u2019s already working on projects for commercial customers as well as for NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Space Force and Air Force. Last year, for example, NOAA awarded Xplore $670,000 to study future options for a space-based solar weather observatory.<\/p>\n

Eventually, the company intends to become a one-stop shop for \u201cspace as a service\u201d satellite operations, extending to the moon, Mars, Venus, asteroids and other deep-space destinations.<\/p>\n

Among Xplore\u2019s advisers are Alan Stern, principal investigator for NASA\u2019s New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt; Lou Friedman, co-founder of the Planetary Society; Keith Masback, former president and CEO of the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation; and Rob Meyerson, operating partner at C5 Capital and former president of Blue Origin.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u201cXplore\u2019s new facility further strengthens the Pacific Northwest as the national leader for satellite and spacecraft development,\u201d Meyerson said in today\u2019s news release. \u201cI look forward to seeing the Xcraft and LightCraft in production.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s new facility is within sight of the building where SpaceX had its first satellite facility in Redmond, and not far from SpaceX\u2019s current Starlink satellite manufacturing complex as well as the Redmond headquarters for Amazon\u2019s Project Kuiper satellite project. LeoStella\u2019s satellite factory is in Tukwila, Wash., close to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Xplore\u2019s new satellite manufacturing facility is in the Redmond complex that once housed Planetary Resources. (Xplore Photo) Xplore, a Seattle-area startup that aims to build satellites for interplanetary missions, has a new address in Redmond, Wash. \u2014 in the same office complex that once housed the Planetary Resources asteroid-mining venture. \u201cXplore\u2019s 22,000-square-foot facility is tailor-made […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4390,20,442,4426],"class_list":["post-17554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-redmond","tag-satellite","tag-satellites","tag-xplore"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17554"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17554\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}