Lockheed Martin Expands Partnership With Terran Orbital

With a $100 million investment and a partnership agreement for the production and marketing of tiny satellites through 2035, the world's largest aerospace company Lockheed Martin is expanding its partnership with satellite producer Terran Orbital. Additionally, Terran declared that it will no longer be constructing its enormous $300 million space vehicle production plant in Florida but rather in Irvine, California. According to CEO Marc Bell, the company chose to relocate the factory to California—where Terran Orbital already has a sizable footprint—because it could move into the facilities faster than in Florida. Consequently, Space Florida, the state's aerospace-focused economic development organization, scheduled to provide the conduit funding for the project, suffered a significant loss. [caption id="attachment_58084" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] image credit: businesswire[/caption] Furthermore, based in Boca Raton, Florida as a contract manufacturer, Terran Orbital creates and erects satellites for the American government and private clients. In addition, Bell claimed that roughly 95% of the business's work is tied to NASA and the Department of Defense in an interview last year. Moreover, in 2017, Lockheed Martin made its initial investment in Terran. And the following year, it led a $36 million round of financing. According to a statement from Terran, they would use the additional funding from Lockheed to expand the production of satellite modules and buy more assembly space. In addition, the smallsat manufacturer also mentioned a synthetic aperture radar satellite product line, as well as satellite parts and subassemblies including reaction wheels and star trackers as future additions to their product range. What's more The business originally intended to build and run its own SAR satellite constellation, known as PredaSAR. But it changed its mind and decided to sell the technology instead. The crisis in Ukraine, according to Terran, demonstrated the need for cutting-edge satellite photography. [caption id="attachment_58082" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] image credit: satellitetoday[/caption] On another note, Terran Orbital is one of the few space companies to go public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition vehicle or SPAC. Additionally, with the news of the agreement with Lockheed, the company's stock price briefly increased, ending on October 31 at $2.62 per share. Lastly, since it first debuted on the public market following the SPAC merger, Terran's stock value fell precipitously. Currently, it is down to almost 72% year to date.