Satellite mega-constellation production begins

European aerospace giant Airbus and its partner, OneWeb, have begun the production of a 

satellite mega-constellation.

The network will comprise at least 600 spacecraft in the first instance, but could eventually 

encompass more than 2,000.

The aim is to deliver broadband links from orbit to every corner of the globe.

In particular, the project wants every school to have a connection.

Building so large a constellation requires a step-change in the manufacture of satellites - 

especially for Airbus.

It can take Europe’s biggest space company many months and hundreds of millions of dollars 

to build some of today’s specialist platforms. But for the OneWeb venture, it is all about high 

volume and low cost.

That means new assembly line methods akin to those in factories producing cars and planes.

The idea is to turn out three units per shift at well less than a million dollars a piece.

The boss of Airbus, Tom Enders, concedes he initially thought the OneWeb concept to be 

fantasy.

"Everything in space as you know traditionally has been 'gold-plated'; it had to work perfectly, 

[and have] the most expensive materials, etc.

"Here, we’ve had to go other ways, to be really commercial and calculating according to the 

target cost because that is very decisive in the whole business case for OneWeb," he told BBC 

News.

Airbus and OneWeb have inaugurated the first assembly line in Toulouse, France. Two further 

lines will be set up in a soon-to-open factory complex in Florida.

The most obvious difference you notice between these new lines and the conventional satellite 

cleanroom is the trolley robot, which moves the developing satellites between the various work 

stations. But the "revolution" here goes far beyond automation; it requires a whole chain of 

suppliers and their components to scale their work to a different game plan.