Canadian space hardware and services provider MDA Corp., which in November purchased U.S. commercial satellite builder Space Systems/Loral (SS/L), is making capital investments at SS/L's California campus to position the company for U.S. government business in surveillance and space robotics, MDA officials said. The investments include a second thermal-vacuum satellite test facility to increase the Palo Alto, Calif., plant's annual production capacity, and both plant and personnel investments to give SS/L the same space-robotics capability that MDA has in Canada. The investments are occur-ring even as SS/L's core market of commercial telecommunications satellites goes through a global dry spell in advance of what MDA and other satellite industry officials say will be a return to the annual 20-plus satellites ordered each year. Depending on the satellites' size and complexity, SS/L needs four or five orders a year for optimal use of its plant facilities.
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