The 550,000 square foot headquarters of ARKA Group, L.P. in Danbury, Connecticut, underwent a significant expansion lately to increase the company’s capacity to produce optical coatings, payloads, and smallsat systems.
Modern cleanrooms are now available for the two-year, 14,000-foot expansion, enabling quick alignment, integration, and testing of sub-meter aperture EO/IR telescopes and payloads. With the aid of the newest digital engineering and manufacturing equipment and an optimized layout, ARKA is able to produce payloads in several shifts with greater efficiency. Additionally, the extension includes a specially built facility that makes it possible to apply superior, durable, space-qualified thin film coatings on optics for every flight. These enhancements increase the site’s unparalleled capacity to fulfil any delivery rate that is now needed or anticipated in the upcoming years.
Charlie Schaub, senior vice president of ARKA’s Space & Defence business, stated, “This expansion supports our increased production of sub-meter telescopes and payloads, keeping the eyes in the sky that our nation and allies depend upon for security, particularly as proliferated low earth orbit constellations grow.” “Our capabilities in smallsat payloads and large optics for ground- and space-based scientific and national security missions are further strengthened and balanced by the enhancements.”
After twelve years and approximately $100 million in capital investments, the expansion completes the last phase of ARKA’s engineering and manufacturing facility. In that time, the Danbury location has renovated an additional 15,000 square feet and installed 31,000 square feet of new cleanroom manufacturing space.
