Aerospacelab Inc. opened last month a new satellite manufacturing facility and U.S. headquarters.
The 35,000-square-foot facility in Torrance is the first manufacturing site for the U.S. subsidiary of Belgian company Aerospacelab NV/SA. The building at 20000 S. Vermont Ave. also includes 6,700 square feet of office space.
Tina Ghataore, group chief strategy and revenue officer at Aerospacelab and its chief executive for North America, said that the new plant, which opened on Sept. 5, will be used to build spacecraft and be surrounded by like-minded companies with similar goals and ideas.
“This was an ideal location for Aerospacelab because of greater Los Angeles serving as a booming aerospace hub for start-ups in close proximity to the U.S. Space Force Base, Space Force Space Systems Command offices, major contractors and other aerospace companies,” Ghataore said in a statement.
Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.’s Caroline Bethel, Kamil Agha and Gary Horwitz represented Aerospacelab Inc. in the lease with landlord Park and Lauren LLC in Compton, who was represented by James Kong and Kevin Kim of Coldwell Banker Commercial.
“Demand for manufacturing space in the South Bay is on the rise as new startups in aerospace, defense and hard tech continue to emerge and companies are capitalizing on the rich labor pool in the market,” said Bethel, a senior associate with JLL, in a statement.
Doubling local employees
Aerospacelab Inc. currently is headquartered in Palo Alto. The company has about 15 employees in Torrance and plans to double that number by the end of the year as it gets into the build and integration phase of its contract with Xona Space Systems.
In March, the two companies announced a partnership in which Aerospacelab Inc. will design, build and launch a satellite for Xona Space, in Burlingame, while the other startup will provide the position, navigation and timing payload for integration into Aerospacelab’s platform.
“Our collaboration with Xona demonstrates how our two companies can work together to bring new technological advancements and faster development, contributing to the overall progress in satellite navigation,” Ghataore said in a statement. “We are excited to be a part of Xona’s journey as we will build this navigation satellite for them, but will also be assembling, integrating and testing at our new U.S. facilities. We are excited to support Xona’s ambitious plan to significantly grow their satellite fleet in the upcoming years.”
Now more than ever, there is a need for mission-ready satellite systems to meet today’s complex global challenges, she added.
“The Aerospacelab facility in greater Los Angeles will boost the local aerospace industry and meet the demands of the U.S. government and military,” Ghataore continued in her statement. “We will not only ramp up satellite bus production but will be doing full builds and satellite operations for U.S. customers, while building our own units in-house. It’s quite remarkable what this will open doors to.”
