Optics

Lockheed Martin opens Optical Payload Center of Excellence in Silicon Valley

Sept. 16, 2014

The Optical Payload Center of Excellence in the heart of Silicon Valley will help Lockheed Martin advance optical systems that power innovations used in satellites, lasers, telescopes, and targeting systems.

Gail Overton

Lockheed Martin says its Optical Payload Center of Excellence will advance optical systems used in satellites, lasers, telescopes, and targeting systems.

The Optical Payload Center of Excellence in the heart of Silicon Valley will help Lockheed Martin (Bethesda, MD; NYSE:LMT) advance optical systems that power innovations used in satellites, lasers, telescopes, and targeting systems. Lockheed Martin says the Center will unite its own design teams with its industry partners and leading research universities into one fast-acting, collaborative unit to develop optical payload technologies that are more powerful, precise, and affordable than today's systems.

"The Optical Payload Center of Excellence will benefit from the digital tapestry that links all stages of development, from initial concept and design to production and qualification," said Rick Ambrose, executive VP of Lockheed Martin Space Systems. "We are leading the way, using immersive virtual reality systems and 3-D printing, to simplify manufacturing and assembly processes. This reduces cost and accelerates the delivery of complex systems."

Lockheed Martin says the Center will provide a place for experts to collaborate, develop, test and produce optical payloads. Scientists and engineers will not only advance technology but also research ways to deliver exacting capability faster and more affordably. For example, sensitive optics on NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph are delivering incredible new images of hidden areas of the sun using a small satellite, which went from concept to payload completion in just 36 months.

The center is located at the company's newest research and development facility in Palo Alto to capture the best talent and resources the region has to offer. "Our customers are increasingly turning to optical payloads for their unrivaled precision and power, particularly on satellite systems," Ambrose said. "Considering our 50 years of experience delivering space-qualified optical systems, we deeply understand our customers’ missions, needs and requirements."

From observatories and satellites to missile defense seekers and targeting pods, numerous Lockheed Martin products use sophisticated optics, such as digital focal planes, directed energy lasers, ladar systems, and specialized optical systems research.

Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 113,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services; net sales for 2013 were $45.4 billion.

SOURCE: Lockheed Martin; http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/news/press-releases/2014/september/0910-ss-optics.html

About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.