AIR Airbus SE

By Andy Pasztor 

This article is being republished as part of our daily reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S. print edition of The Wall Street Journal (July 18, 2018).

FARNBOROUGH, London -- The head of Airbus SE's defense and space business anticipates major long-term benefits, including possibly Pentagon contracts, as a result of implementing a high-volume automated production system for small satellites.

Dirk Hoke said the production and quality-control changes -- under way as part of a joint venture with Internet services provider OneWeb -- will position Airbus to churn out less-expensive spacecraft using fewer workers and less testing than with traditional factory practices.

Airbus officials previously highlighted expected financial gains stemming from assembling up to two satellites a day at the comparatively low cost of $1 million each. But Mr. Hoke's comments at the international air show here Monday were the most specific yet about the project's positive effect on internal industrial processes, as well as on the general approach of Airbus engineers.

Committing to assemble a new generation of lightweight satellites primarily using robots "was a game-changer for us," Mr. Hoke said. Previously the Airbus unit assembled one or two much larger satellites a month relying heavily on manual labor and extensive testing during production.

The satellites slated to be built for OneWeb on a Florida assembly line later this year will undergo substantially less testing as a unit, once individual components meet requirements earlier in the process.

Nicolas Chamussy, who runs the Airbus satellite business, said in the same interview that the impact on engineers has been significant. "It has brought the teams to the spirit of we can probably do things differently" than in the past, he said.

Now, Airbus is working on ways to transfer the knowledge and lessons learned beyond the several hundred Airbus staff working on the project.

In addition to staff training and awareness, Mr. Hoke said the production changes will help Airbus maintain what he described as a "one, two or three year" head start over competitors seeking to launch small-satellite constellations similar to those designed for OneWeb and its initial deployment of 900 spacecraft..

The scale of OneWeb production has tested Airbus, the officials said. The company, for instance, needs to install one onboard computer on each satellite. In the past, Airbus has produced roughly one such computer per month.

The upshot is that Airbus experts designed the computers, which were then contracted out to suppliers.

Mr. Hoke said prospective customers interested in small-satellite projects tend to "like the design" of the basic satellite platform employed for the OneWeb constellation and "active discussions" are under way with other customers on potential follow-on systems. Airbus also is mulling whether to use the same platform to bid on a closely watched Pentagon research project called "Blackjack," consisting of small satellites.

Write to Andy Pasztor at andy.pasztor@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 18, 2018 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)

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