Spectrum Astro was a privately held American corporation that designed, manufactured, and sold

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

s. Spectrum Astro's, at the time, unique satellite production method was to design and manufacture space satellites, in their entirety, at a single research, design and manufacturing site. This novel idea allowed for lower cost and more reliable satellites which were able to be fully tested as a whole before launch. The Spectrum Astro plant, located in

Gilbert, Arizona Gilbert is a town in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, located southeast of Phoenix within the city's metropolitan area. Incorporated on July 6, 1920, Gilbert was once known as the "Hay Shipping Capital of the World". It is the fifth-larg ...

, had especially wide hallways and internal bay doors to rooms which allowed for satellites to be easily transported within the building for various stages of design, assembly, and testing. Spectrum Astro was founded by W. David Thompson in 1988, with $5,000 in cash and a credit card, and finished its first year in operation with $27,000 in revenue. In 2004, the company was sold to

General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded, aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth-largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales, and 5th largest in the Uni ...

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* {{cite web , url= https://airandspace.si.edu/support/wall-of-honor/w-david-thompson-1 , title= W. David Thompson {{! National Air and Space Museum , publisher= National Air and Space Museum 1988 establishments in Arizona American companies established in 1988 Defense companies of the United States Gilbert, Arizona Manufacturing companies established in 1988 Space Act Agreement companies Technology companies established in 1988 Spacecraft manufacturers