Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin

The Gateway Center will include a sterile high bay clean room that will prevent dirt and dust from damaging various spacecraft pieces as they are built.

Lockheed Martin has started construction on a new facility at its Waterton Canyon campus in Denver. The $350 million Gateway Center will produce next-generation satellites in a range of sizes, from micro to macro.

The Gateway Center will include a sterile high bay clean room that will prevent dirt and dust from damaging various spacecraft pieces as they are built. According to the company, the facility will be a "paperless, digitally-enabled production environment," which will incorporate reconfigurable production lines and advanced testing capabilities.

Construction, which is expected to be finished in 2020, will likely employ 1,500 contractors, the company said. So far, Hensel Phelps has been chosen as the project's general contractor, Matrix PDM Engineering and Dynavac will design and build the thermal vacuum chamber, and ETS-Lindgren will design and build the anechoic chamber.

Since 2014, Lockheed Martin has added more than 750 jobs to Colorado, with close to 350 current openings in the Denver area. The company expects the Gateway Center to help accommodate its recent growth, as well as future endeavors.

"Aerospace is an engine of innovation and growth for America, and we're investing in infrastructure and technology to help strengthen the nation's leadership in military and commercial space and scientific exploration," said Rick Ambrose, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Space Systems.

At the end of last year, Lockheed Martin began construction on a new facility at Utah's Falcon Hill National Aerospace Research Park.

For more information, visit www.lockheedmartin.com.

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