Boeing’s El Segundo, California, satellite factory has been turning out satellites since 1955 when it was purchased by Howard Hughes and his Aerospace Group. It had previously turned out cars, including the Nash Rambler.

It was the production home of the equally famous Hughes HS series of satellites, including the HS-376 ‘spinners’ (the first-ever satellite to be launched by the Space Shuttle) and then the HS-601 and HS-702 ‘birds’ which were bought over the years by PanAmSat, Intelsat, AsiaSat and SES and in the modified 702HP versions by DirecTV, ABS, SES, Telesat, Inmarsat and Intelsat, amongst others.

Boeing bought Millenium Space Systems in 2018, also based at El Segundo, which was incorporated into Boeing’s Satellite Development Center and which – in part – turns out missiles as well as satellites.

Between the two facilities Boeing now says it is going to significantly boost output with a target of 60 satellites per year, and growing in number thereafter. The two facilities employ around 1,000 staff.

Michelle Parker, VP at Boeing’s Space Mission Systems, in a Washington DC interview at the Satellite 2024 event, said that about 80 percent of satellite is now produced in-house. “[We have set up] the production line so that we can produce, in the current footprint, about 60 satellites a year, and then we have plans, as they continue to grow, to replicate that until we get to 120 or 180 satellites a year within our factory footprint,” she said.

DISH open to DirecTV merger

Not the first time, merger reports between North America’s two DTH operators have emerged, but a Bloomberg report states that Charlie Ergen’s DISH Network (now part of his EchoStar business) is open to merging with AT&T’s DirecTV.

Shares of Dish Network rose 6.3 per cent on March 22nd while AT&T stock went up 1.9 per cent.

Both DISH and DirecTV have struggled in holding on to subscribers as viewers move away from conventional payTV and onto streaming platforms. The report come a day after investment bank UBS wrote a note outlining the benefits of a merger between Dish and DirecTV.

There is, this far, no formal comment from either business.