Argotec inaugurates new satellite factory

TURIN, Italy — Italian smallsat manufacturer Argotec formally opened a new manufacturing facility that will allow it to increase its production rate while it looks at new business opportunities in Europe and the United States.

The company held an event here Oct. 18 to open its new SpacePark headquarters and manufacturing facility, attended by regional and national officials, including Adolfo Urso, minister for enterprises in the Italian government, and Teodoro Valente, president of the Italian space agency ASI. The building has 11,500 square meters of space, including 1,000 square meters of clean rooms.

While SpacePark is new for Argotec, the building itself is not new. The unique building, whose round shape gives it the feel of an old sci-fi spaceship, was designed more than four decades ago for a paper company by Oscar Niemeyer, the famed Brazilian architect best known for designing many of the key government buildings in Brasilia.

David Avino, chief executive of Argotec, said in an interview that he had considered building a new facility on a greenfield site, but wanted to avoid the environmental impact of cutting down trees and pouring concrete. “Then I came here and saw, you know, a spaceship,” he said. “And I said that I want to come here. I want to have the company here.”

Argotec spent 25 million euros ($27 million) renovating the building, adding clean rooms and mission control centers. That required some work to deal with the building’s unusual design. “Everything had to be restructured into a circular shape,” he said. “But the final idea was to have one of the most advanced space factories in Europe.”

The company has set aside 1,200 square meters of the building for SpacePark HUB, which Avino described as an accelerator for startups developing technologies that Argotec could use for its spacecraft.

“They have to have something already at technology readiness level six or seven,” he said of companies that would then spend one or two years in SpacePark HUB. “We’re working together, enhancing the capabilities of their products and then flying in space with a more stable product.”

SpacePark is designed to produce up to one satellite a week. That capacity will initially support projects like IRIDE, an Earth observation constellation funded by the Italian government. Argotec was originally under contract to build 10 satellites and signed a contract Oct. 16 for 15 additional satellites.

In addition to SpacePark, Argotec has two facilities in the United States, in Largo, Maryland and Melbourne, Florida. That allows the company to tap into interest from U.S. government customers for small satellites. Argotec has 15 employees in the United States, compared to 200 at SpacePark, but Avino said his company is expanding in America.

Despite the investment in building out SpacePark, he said the company remains profitable. He added the company may seek to raise funding in the coming years to support its U.S. expansion and for research and development towards a goal of having 80% of its satellite subsystems built in-house. He added the company may consider an initial public offering of shares in three to five years.

Argotec doesn’t expect to need to invest much in expansion of SpacePark, though, as the building is able to accommodate up to 600 employees. “We have room to grow.”