Northwood Opens Torrance Factory to Mass-Produce Satellite Ground Infrastructure

Northwood, building a global ground network for the future of space communications, led by Bridgit Mendler, Griffin Cleverly, Shaurya Luthra, and the team, opened a new 185,000-square-foot headquarters and factory in Torrance, California, and expanded production of its satellite ground network. 

The new facility expands the company’s manufacturing footprint more than fivefold, from 25,000 to 135,000 square feet, enabling production of hundreds of antennas annually. The expansion addresses a growing space-industry bottleneck: ground-to-orbit data links have struggled to keep pace with the rapid growth in satellite deployments.

Thousands of satellites now orbit Earth, but the ground networks handling their data still rely heavily on bespoke dishes that are slow to manufacture and scale. Northwood is rebuilding this infrastructure by taking novel antenna designs from prototype to mass production. Its modular architecture standardizes components for different missions, reducing costs and accelerating ground-site deployment.

Northwood combines multiple small antennas to perform like a single large dish, using proprietary methods to accelerate deployment from months to hours. The company also manages site development, permits and software integration, creating a software-defined shared network for space missions. Its Portal product can combine arrays to match the gain of a 7.3m dish, cutting delivery times from three years to three months while enabling 10× more links.

“This facility represents the next stage for Northwood's growth,” said Bridgit Mendler, co-founder and CEO of Northwood. “We have demonstrated capability across two product lines, Portal and Prism, and now we have the infrastructure to press print on building the network with scaled links and throughput."

The expansion comes as commercial operators and allied governments demand reliable, resilient, high-throughput connections to orbit. Northwood’s ground network maintains satellite connectivity across orbits, removing the ground segment as a constraint on mission scale and growth.

“Northwood’s decision to establish its headquarters and dramatically expand manufacturing in Torrance is a powerful vote of confidence in our city and our highly skilled workforce,” said City of Torrance Mayor Sharon Kalani, “This new facility will help create 400 high-quality jobs and further strengthen the aerospace and advanced manufacturing sector shaping Torrance’s future. We are proud to support Northwood’s continued growth and innovation.”

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