Orbital ATK’s Dulles, Virginia, facility recently celebrated the opening of the campus’s new Makerspace, a creative laboratory designed to encourage employees to think outside the box when it comes to solving engineering problems.
Orbital ATK’s Space Systems Group President Frank Culbertson tours the new Makerspace with employee Megan Smith.
The Makerspace hosts several 3D printers, a 90W laser cutter, voltage supplies, soldering irons, and computers with many engineering tools across several disciplines. It serves as a place for solving engineering problems and has been used to create numerous small-scale personal projects, a large demo to simulate docking with the International Space Station and a variety of tools needed for hardware tests.
“To describe it simply, makerspaces are a community center with tools,” said Marc Costantine, founder of the Dulles…
