Boeing expands in El Segundo

Boeing and Millennium Space Systems are adding satellite production capacity in El Segundo as they chase a bigger backlog of military and commercial orders. (boeing.com) Boeing said April 16 that the expansion includes a new electro-optical infrared sensor line at its El Segundo satellite site and a broader lineup of spacecraft products. The company also introduced Resolute, a mid-class satellite platform aimed at missions that sit between small satellites and Boeing’s larger traditional spacecraft. (boeing.com) (boeing.mediaroom.com) Reuters reported Boeing is targeting 26 satellite deliveries in 2026 after delivering 11 in 2025, which it described as the company’s highest annual total in 25 years. Boeing said its 2025 delivery count was pushed higher by Millennium spacecraft for an undisclosed national security customer. (msn.com) (boeing.com) A satellite bus is the basic body of a spacecraft — the power, propulsion and control systems that carry the mission equipment. Boeing says Resolute is built to offer more payload room and flexibility than a typical small satellite while moving faster than many large custom-built programs. (boeing.mediaroom.com) The production push is tied to Pentagon demand for more numerous satellites in orbit, not just a few large ones. Boeing said the new El Segundo sensor line will support Millennium’s 12 spacecraft for the U.S. Space Force’s Resilient Missile Warning and Tracking Medium Earth Orbit program, with deliveries planned in 2027. (boeing.com) Millennium has been building toward that model for several years in El Segundo. The company formally commemorated its Small Satellite Factory in July 2023 after opening the site in 2022 to handle rising contracts for proliferated constellations, or networks made up of many satellites instead of one large platform. (millennium-space.com) Boeing bought Millennium in 2018 and kept it as a subsidiary focused on faster-turn small satellites. Boeing’s broader satellite business now spans Millennium’s rapid-production constellations, military systems like Wideband Global SATCOM, and commercial communications spacecraft. (investors.boeing.com 1) (investors.boeing.com 2) (boeing.com) El Segundo has been a satellite hub for Boeing for decades. Boeing says the site built Syncom, the first geosynchronous communications satellite, in 1963 and has delivered more than 300 satellites there since, making this expansion less a new outpost than a bet on scaling an old one. (boeing.com)