ARLINGTON, Va. — Defense giant Lockheed Martin announced Nov. 19 that its new mid-size satellite platform will make its orbital debut next year aboard a Firefly Aerospace rocket.
The LM 400 satellite bus — roughly the size of a household refrigerator — represents Lockheed’s bid to capture a sweet spot in the satellite market: missions requiring more power and payload capacity than small satellites can provide, but not demanding the complexity of traditional large satellites.
“The intent is to show that we’ve built a system, and the technical risk has been burned down,” Jeff Schrader, vice president of strategy and business development at Lockheed Martin Space, said at a news conference.
Supply chain problems
The planned demonstration mission in low Earth orbit, carrying a communications payload, comes after a three-year development period marked by supply chain disruptions that delayed the platform’s original 2023 launch target. The program also faced a setback when its initial launch provider, ABL Space, struggled to get its launch vehicle operational, prompting Lockheed to pivot to Firefly’s Alpha rocket under a new multi-launch agreement.
The LM 400 platform was selected by Raytheon for a U.S. Space Force missile-defense program but the company exited the program. Schrader indicated that multiple customers have signed on. He said the bus will be offered in the commercial and government markets.
“We went through a critical design review on a government program already, and this has already been bid on several customer programs,” he said. The satellites will be manufactured at Lockheed’s facilities in Denver, Colorado.
This announcement comes on the heels of Lockheed Martin’s recent acquisition of small-satellite manufacturer Terran Orbital. Schrader emphasized that Terran Orbital will maintain its independence as a merchant supplier rather than becoming exclusively Lockheed’s in-house manufacturer.
“We’re also working with them to see what else they can do and what we can do to help them,” Schrader added, suggesting potential synergies between the companies’ capabilities.
