Maxar Successfully Launches Fifth and Sixth WorldView Legion Satellites

All six WorldView Legion Earth imaging satellites are performing well on orbit, marking a new era for geospatial insights

WESTMINSTER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Maxar Intelligence, a provider of secure, precise geospatial insights, today confirmed that its fifth and sixth WorldView Legion satellites are performing well after being launched into mid-inclination orbit from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket earlier today.

With this successful launch, Maxar now has seven satellites on orbit capable of collecting 30 cm-class imagery—representing a significant increase in very-high resolution imagery capacity and marking a new era for the geospatial industry. Once all six WorldView Legion satellites are fully operational, the Maxar constellation will be able to collect more than 6 million sq km of Earth imagery per day, including up to 3.6 million sq km of 30 cm-class imagery.

These capabilities offer:

• More capacity for mission planning.
• The ability to collect more real-time imagery to support site monitoring, emergency response, maritime surveillance and civil government use cases.
• Foundational imagery to create fresher basemaps and 3D maps for commercial and operational mapmaking and telecommunications planning.
• Enhanced insights extracted on the global scale for informed decision-making.

“This incredible achievement puts Maxar in a category of its own within the geospatial industry, and it’s been made possible thanks to the hard work, dedication and talent of the many people who have supported this program over the years,” said Dan Smoot, Maxar Intelligence CEO. “This is the just the beginning. This additional capacity enables us to collect more timely data over more locations, and it will further fuel the industry’s most advanced 2D and 3D geospatial content products.”

“Combining this capacity with our AI-powered technologies and software platform puts Maxar in a unique position to deliver the ground truth in near real-time, empowering our government and commercial users to make mission-critical, time-sensitive decisions with confidence,” Smoot said.

In addition to increasing collection capacity, the WorldView Legion satellites enhance the capabilities of Maxar’s industry-leading constellation by:

• Powering dawn-to-dusk image collection, with satellites in mid-inclination orbit and sun-synchronous orbit.
• Enabling up to 15 revisits per day of some locations on Earth, which is critical for use cases like site and change monitoring.

The first two WorldView Legion launched in May 2024 and are currently supporting customer missions. The second pair launched in August 2024 and delivered first images late last year.

Built by Maxar Space Systems, these six WorldView Legion satellites are the first Maxar 500™ series platforms to reach space, following the successful launches of the four last year.

“Maxar Space Systems is committed to our Maxar Intelligence customer, delivering on our legacy of quality and reliability. The WorldView Legion spacecraft are built to be the most advanced commercial Earth observation systems, reflecting our team's dedication and hard work," said the CEO of Maxar Space Systems, Chris Johnson.

Learn more about Maxar’s next-generation WorldView Legion satellites.

About Maxar Intelligence

Maxar Intelligence is a leading provider of secure, precise geospatial insights. Operating the most advanced commercial Earth observation constellation on orbit, we use the power of very high-resolution satellite imagery and software technology to deliver mission success on Earth and in space. Our secure, AI-powered products and services deliver ground truth in near real-time to keep nations safe, improve navigation, protect our planet, speed up disaster response and more. For more information, visit www.maxar.com.

About Maxar Space Systems

Maxar Space Systems is a leading satellite manufacturer and provider of advanced solutions for space exploration and operations. We deliver innovative solutions to commercial and government customers helping them unlock the promise of space to solve problems on Earth and beyond. We address a broad spectrum of needs for our customers, including mission systems engineering, product design, spacecraft manufacturing, assembly, integration and testing. Maxar Space Systems is a trusted partner in commercial and government missions, combining more than 60 years of deep mission understanding and industry leading performance. For more information, visit www.maxar.com