NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.–Responding to customer demands for more affordable, flexible and responsive products, Lockheed Martin [LMT] on Tuesday introduced a new family of satellite busses with hundreds of common features able to carry payloads weighing from 22 pounds to more than 5,000 pounds for commercial, civil and military missions.

The company invested $300 million over the past five years, including internal research and development funding, to create the four buses, each of which is scalable for power, weight and other mission factors can go from concept to delivery and at lower costs than previously, Kay Sears, vice president of Strategy and Business Development at Lockheed Martin’s Space Systems segment, said a media briefing during the Air Force Association’s Air, Space, Cyber Conference.

Lockheed Martin's family of solutions—all now featuring common components—include four series of satellites from nanosatellites to powerful geostationary platforms. (PRNewsfoto/Lockheed Martin)
Lockheed Martin’s family of solutions—all now featuring common components—include four series of satellites from nanosatellites to powerful geostationary platforms. Graphic: Lockheed Martin

“We’re not your big stodgy satellite provider anymore,” Sears said, adding that the new lineup of spacecraft is responding to customer needs.

Most of the investment went into transforming the company’s largest satellite carrier, the A2100, which has been renamed the LM 2100, which features 26 new enhancements, delivering more power, flexibility, lower cost and faster delivery, Sears said. The changes include flight a new solar array construct and optical solar reflectors, flight software and propellant tanks, she said.

These enhancements “will ripple through the rest of the product family,” Sears said. She also said the new features will mean “millions of dollars in savings across the fleet.”

More than 100 A2100s have been delivered over the years. The LM 2100 is already under contract for two international communications satellites and is being used for the fifth and sixth Air Force Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) geosynchronous (GEO) missile warning satellites, company officials said. The Air Force awarded the company a $1.9 billion contract in 2014 for the SBIRS satellites.

There are 280 common components across the new family, which also includes the LM 50, the smallest bus and is meant carry nanosatellites, the LM 400, a reconfigurable bus for small satellites that builds on the more than 150 legacy small satellite missions the company has delivered, and the hexagonal-shaped LM 1000, which is designed for medium-size payloads and is “ideal for remote sensing missions,” Lockheed Martin said.

The company has built more than 150 small satellites, each of the unique, and the LM 400 standardizes this into a flexible, scalable bus, Sears said.

The LM 50 serves low earth orbits, the LM 2100 GEO orbits, and the LM 400 and LM 1000 service both orbits.

The common components include propulsion products, gimbals and mechanisms, power regulation, reaction wheels, solar array and battery technology, software and avionics, and thermal control, according to a briefing slide. Sears said the company will continue to push for additional commonality.

Commonality drives standardization which means the company can buy in bulk from its suppliers, which in turn drives down costs and also allows for faster production because “those components come off our shelf,” allowing for speedier use in different satellites, Sears said. Standardization also “drives reliability,” she said.

Another key feature of the LM bus series is an integrated ground system with each bus. The ground systems also have commonality, including command and control, and mission software, Sear said. The mission software will have an open interface that connects with the Air Force ground system, she said. The integrated ground systems will include automation to enable users “to fly multiple satellites at different orbits, even from different manufacturers,” she said.