Larry,
Well, well, well, just when you think you know the score, somebody up and changes the players. It appears that I owe you and about 1,200 Motorola employees an apology. But at the risk of getting off on a tangent, I must confess I am confused. I *know* that Lockheed designed the Iridium spacecraft, and I also know that the first samples (the ones now in orbit) came off of a Lockheed production floor in Sunnyvale, CA. I *thought* that Lockheed's contract with Iridium was for 125 spacecraft. See page 9 of the Lockheed 1996 Annual Report, available at:
lmco.com
So what is the Chandler plant making? I always thought that Chandler, AZ housed the Iridium ground station and also that they were making some payload parts there. But the Motorola Web page you pointed me to clearly stated that they have a satellite production line in Chandler. It would appear that Iridium wanted a little more control of their production line than Lockheed was willing to give them.!? Does this mean that Lockheed lost part of their contract!? Enquiring minds want to know! Is anyone out there who knows willing to confess?
Anyhow, my original point to this was that Aerospace is booming right now, and because of the bust that was going on a few short years ago, there is a bit of a lag of new people coming into the field. I know this because I am in Aerospace. I brought this up because of all of the ambitious projects under way has got every satellite manufacturer booked-up, with little hope of hiring in new capability to relieve the pressure. At least in the short term.
Anyhow, I am now wondering about this new Iridium plant in Chandler. I wonder if Iridium plans to "just" manufacture satellites there, with someone else (like Lockheed) providing the design talent, or is Iridium going to design new successive generations in Chandler.? |
