It’s official: Boeing’s Echo Voyager to join AltaSea in San Pedro

An unmanned underwater drone-sub in development by Boeing recently finished its first phase of testing off PV, Catalina and the ports. It’s about to begin deep-water testing off Catalina. It was built in Huntington Beach, docks in Long Beach. Credit Boeing.

After two years of negotiations, a deal has been signed for Boeing’s Echo Voyager
to become a tenant at AltaSea in San Pedro.

The formal announcement will be made Thursday by Los Angeles City
Councilman Joe Buscaino at his annual State of the District speech.

The 51-foot-long Voyager unmanned submarine, when it was stationed at
Alamitos Bay in Long Beach, conducted its first real-world trials in the San Pedro
Bay and off the Palos Verdes Peninsula in 2017. The robot submarine is designed
to stay underwater and explore the deep sea for months at a time.

Boeing’s Echo Voyager, built in Huntington Beach, will be a tenant at AltaSea in San
Pedro. Credit Boeing

Boeing will occupy space on the wharf within the AltaSea marine research
campus and already has begun working onsite.

The announcement had been expected, but finalizing the deal had taken longer
than anticipated. In June 2016, it was announced that Boeing would become an
anchor tenant at the 35-acre campus being built in refurbished warehouses on
wharf space Outer Harbor at 2456 Signal St. A final agreement was expected to
be signed by the end of 2016, according to a news report from two years ago.

“For decades, Boeing has been a world leader in aviation, aerospace, satellites
and other cutting-edge technologies,” AltaSea CEO Tim McOsker said in the
written statement. “Their investment in Echo Voyager is a ringing endorsement of
the opportunities we all see in exploring and understanding the oceans at our
doorstep.”

Boeing joins SpaceX as a tenant at the groundbreaking campus that will feature
seawater laboratories, offices, a lecture hall, interpretive center and participation
from many of the region’s leading universities. Robert Ballard and his
exploration/research vessel Nautilus also is a winter tenant at AltaSea.

“With SpaceX coming to the Port of Los Angeles and Boeing coming to AltaSea,
San Pedro now becomes the new home to ocean and space exploration,”
Buscaino said.

To view original article: https://www.dailybreeze.com/2018/05/02/its-official-boeings-echo-voyager-to-join-altasea-in-san-pedro/  

About Donna Littlejohn
Donna Littlejohn has covered the Harbor Area as a reporter since 1981. Along with development, politics, coyotes, battleships and crime, she writes features that have spotlighted an array of topics, from an alligator on the loose in a city park to the modern-day cowboys who own the trails on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. She loves border collies and Aussie dogs, cats, early California Craftsman architecture and most surviving old stuff. She imagines the 1970s redevelopment sweep that leveled so much of San Pedro’s historic waterfront district as very sad.