Aerospace powerhouse Lockheed Martin announced Thursday it plans to acquire Florida-based satellite manufacturing company Terran Orbital.

The Boca Raton-based company recently expanded satellite production out of California after a plan to build them in Brevard County fell through.

“We’ve worked with Terran Orbital for more than seven years on a variety of successful missions,” said Lockheed Martin Space President Robert Lightfoot in a press release. “Their capabilities, talent and business momentum align with Lockheed Martin Space’s strategic plans – and we’re looking forward to welcoming them to our team. Our customers require advanced technology and even faster product development, and that’s what we can achieve together.”

Lockheed Martin, based in Littleton, Colorado, has several Florida-based aerospace facilities including offices in Orlando, the Space Coast and Palm Beach County.

The company stated the acquisition of Terran Orbital aims to expand its advanced satellite manufacturing and responsive space capabilities, especially with Terran Orbital’s footprint in both the aerospace and defense industries.

Terran Orbital’s business plan has been in mass robotic production of its satellites, and Lockheed Martin was one of its early investors.

The company made headlines in 2021 when it announced it planned to build a massive factory on the Space Coast and create 2,100 high-paying jobs, touted by Gov. Ron DeSantis in a press conference saying it would mean a $300 million boost to the Space Coast economy.

That plan, which would have been to build a 660,000-square-foot plant, never came to pass. It shifted plans and instead competed a smaller 60,000-square-foot expansion in late 2023 to existing space in Irvine, California, which was certified for occupation last month.

Terran Orbital CEO Marc Bell spoke about its strategy at the SpaceCom conference in Orlando in January.

“We decided to do it differently, and we decided to control our supply chain. We decided to start a robotics company,” he said. “We build our own robots. And now we’re going from a garage to our new (California) facility … It’s just all robots — three hundred robots building robots. They’re already being called Skynet.”

The automation is changing the game in an aerospace market with ever-increasing demand, he said.

“We will be able to build next year a full satellite in 160 days with payload included,” Bell said.

The release said the value of the transaction is about $450 million with Lockheed Martin to acquire Terran Orbital for $0.25 in cash for each outstanding share of common stock and retire its existing debt. The company, which trades on the NYSE, had closed at $0.41 on Wednesday.

Earlier this year, Lockheed had offered $1 per share in an earlier offer that was ultimately withdrawn, but also coincided with another contract from Lockheed with Terran Orbital, which makes up a lion’s share of its satellites on order.

The new deal, though, will have Lockheed Martin and other creditors make available $30 million in working capital, which helps the company’s cash flow issues that were revealed in SEC filings earlier this year.

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2024 and subject to regulatory approval. Terran Orbital will retain its identity as a commercial merchant supplier to industry, the release said, meaning it could supply to customers other than Lockheed Martin.

“We’re trying to go ahead to show that we’re mass producing satellites and mass assembling them, we can … lower the cost and increase the functionality,” Bell said in January.

Lockheed Martin had partnered with Terran Orbital already, working with the Space Force’s Space Development Agency on several recent demonstration launches.

“This transaction combines our strengths and expertise,” Bell said in the press release. “This move will open new opportunities for growth and innovation, and we couldn’t be more excited about the future. Access to Lockheed Martin’s incredible engineers and world class facilities will only accelerate our business plan to provide low-cost, high-value solutions to our ever-growing customer base.”

To date, Terran Orbital has supported more than 80 missions. Bell said in January it had built 250 satellite buses per year, but by the end of 2024, the company would have the capability to construct 1,000 space vehicles per year. Lockheed Martin was already its largest customer and had made three investments since 2017 with Terran Orbital.

“The demand globally is incredible, not just military,” Bell said. “We’re seeing pretty much all we do for the commercial sector as well, that eventually wants to work with the military.”