Northrop Grumman Breaks Ground on $20M Space Assembly and Test Facility in Linthicum

By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor

Northrop Grumman Corporation is adding another building to its 129-acre campus in Anne Arundel County. The company officially broke ground on Monday, July 14, on a new Space Assembly and Test (M-SAT) facility. Senator Ben Cardin, Representatives C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger and John Sarbanes, and many others joined Gloria Flach, corporate vice president and president of Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems, in Linthicum for the ground breaking ceremony.

The new M-SAT building will cost $20 million. It will have 25,000 square feet of space and will be used to handle space payload integration programs. Northrop Grumman currently develops and delivers space payloads in several smaller facilities on its Baltimore campus. The new, three-story building, with its high-bay area, will allow the company to expand payload production.

“Northrop Grumman is committed to finding more affordable solutions to the nation’s needs for critical space systems,” Gloria Flach said in a statement. “This new M-SAT facility will enable us to meet our customers’ space integration, assembly and test requirements more efficiently and affordably.”

According to Northrop Grumman, the $20 million building near Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport will feature the largest clean room facility on campus. It will also have offices and lab space. Eighty engineers and technicians will work there, once construction is complete.

“Baltimore has long been home to Northrop Grumman and, now, they are choosing to grow here because of our second-to-none workforce,” Representative Dutch Ruppersberger added. “This investment will not only create local jobs, it will cement Maryland’s reputation as a national space leader and drive the innovation that will help us win the global space race.”

Maryland-based Patriot Contractors LLC was hired as the project’s general contractor. The new building is expected to open in the summer of 2015.

“Nearly a half century ago when we sent Neil Armstrong to the moon, America was just in the beginning of its journey into the unknown,” said Sarbanes. “Now that we better understand the great technological advances that can be made through space exploration, we must keep our country on the cutting edge. This facility will create high-tech job opportunities that put Marylanders back to work and keep our economy on the move.”

Photo credits: Northrop Grumman Corporation