Boeing has announced the completion of a $10 million, 20,500-square-foot satellite Mission Control Center (MCC) in El Segundo, Calif. The MCC can manage up to four commercial or government satellite missions at the same time.

The MCC replaces another Boeing facility in El Segundo that was smaller and had limited capacity.

"The MCC is an integral part of our customer service and support operations," said Craig Cooning, vice president and general manager of Space and Intelligence Systems, a division of Boeing Network and Space Systems.

"Our satellite mission experts at the center monitor the health of a spacecraft from the time it is mated to the launch vehicle through in-orbit testing. Over the past 26 years, more than 120 missions have been operated at Boeing MCCs, and we continue to invest in this service so that we are prepared to support any customer -- commercial, civil or government."

The U.S. Air Force is expected to be the first customer of the new center and will use it to manage an element of the military's Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) mission.

Boeing has a long history of proven performance for the Air Force and is currently manufacturing satellites for the WGS mission, the Global Positioning System and the Space-Based Space Surveillance system.

A Boeing-led team is also competing to build the Transformational Satellite Communications System (TSAT) Space Segment, which will provide military users with proven networked packet-switching technology for breakthrough mobile communications.

Boeing's Team TSAT, which includes Cisco Systems, Hughes, IBM, Harris Corp., Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., LGS Innovations, Raytheon, General Dynamics C4S, L-3 Communications, BBN Technologies, EMS Technologies and SAIC, is under contract for the TSAT risk reduction and system demonstration phase.

The Air Force is expected to announce the winner of the multibillion-dollar TSAT Space Segment contract later this year.

The new MCC is located next to Boeing's satellite factory and features more than 100 engineering workstations that will be used for satellite operations. From these consoles, satellite operators and other experts can monitor a satellite's health and safety, conduct satellite maneuvers for placement into proper orbit, send software updates and provide other support throughout the life of the spacecraft.

Boeing has developed a new computer network architecture for the center's four control suites that allows engineers to change the configuration from one unique mission to another in as little as a few days. At the old center, such reconfigurations would have taken much longer.

The new MCC was designed with the flexibility to add additional control suites to respond to market needs.