Rendition of Lockheed Martin’s Gateway Center after completion. Photo: Lockheed Martin.

The foundation for Lockheed Martin’s new satellite production factory has been completed, the company announced. According to a statement released Feb. 27, the Gateway Center construction is making rapid progress and is on track for completion in 2020. The project recently reached a significant milestone, when the construction team began installing vertical structural steel.

The $350 million, 266,000 square feet building located near Denver is designed to streamline satellite production and increase cost savings for both government and commercial customers. The building will house an ISO Class 8 high bay cleanroom, an anechoic chamber, and a large thermal vacuum chamber to conduct dynamic endurance tests on the satellites.

According to Lockheed Martin, the Gateway Center will be capable of producing multiple satellites at the same time. The company expects embedded functions of the building will reduce satellite production processes from days to just hours.

In the months since the groundbreaking, more than 100,000 cubic yards of soil have been moved to make way for the project. To prepare for the foundation construction, more than 500 caissons and support beams have been drilled and installed in holes up to 30 feet deep. Upon completion, the Gateway Center project will have used hundreds of structural steel beams weighing nearly 2,200 tons.