Tags: NEC, Japan
Publication: NationMultimedia.com
Publication Date: 01/15/2013

NEC’s Satellite Bus Module NEXTAR. Image credit: NEC

NEC Corporation announced an expansion to its plant located in Fuchu City, outside of Tokyo. The new facility will be dedicated for assembly, evaluation and testing of satellites. According to the company, the expansion will allow it to assemble up to eight satellites at the same time.

The new facility will also be used for manufacturing large-scale satellites with a four-story, steel-frame structure in its 9,900 square meters total floor area. Additionally, the $108 million facility is being built to tolerate powerful earthquakes within the 7-magnitude range. The project is being subsidized by the Japanese government with NEC disbursing approximately $85 million. Construction is scheduled to begin in March to be done in June 2014 when the facility is expected to open.

The expanded Fuchu facility will support integrated production systems for NEC’s standard bus satellite, NEXTAR.
With this expansion, the company, which has managed the integration of 66 Japanese satellites, is aiming to generate approximately one billion dollars in space-related business by 2020.

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