Construction has been approved for the development of a massive satellite manufacturing facility, Orion Center in New Mexico. These plans were endorsed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and three approvals covering Environmental Assessment and Non-Aeronautical use were also submitted to the city of Albuquerque for the use of its land.
Located at the intersection of Gibson Boulevard SE and Girard Boulevard SE, adjacent to the Albuquerque International Airport, the Orion Center in New Mexico, will occupy more than 4 million square feet, making it one of the largest satellite centers in the country.
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Construction work on the facility will be handled by Theia Group Inc. and its subdivision, Group Orion. Development is expected to continue over the span of a decade and it is estimated to occupy 114 acres of land, with an anticipated cost between $8 billion to $10 billion.
According to the planning department of the city, a campus will be built as part of the Orion Center in New Mexico which will feature buildings for manufacturing operations, laboratories, a hotel, and other amenities. The facility will also house a building for advanced Theia Group technology, cutting across the testing of satellite networks, capturing continuous images and data from the earth for border security as well as mapping services.
James Reid Gorman, Theia Group vice president, mentioned that the new Orion center in New Mexico will provide jobs for at least 1000 workers which will also include software developers and data scientists.
He also said that local subcontractors would be hired for the project, through the efforts of a Colorado-based construction management company, Hansel Phelps who have been reaching out to several qualified local subcontractors.
In preparation for the main work, Theia Group and Group Orion signed a multi-year lease for two facilities, formerly used by defense contractor Raytheon Co. They intend to use these spaces for manufacturing, research and development, while they await the completion of the main project.
Construction of the Orion Center will be performed in several phases, with the scheduled date of the initial phase starting sometime in the late winter of next year.
