World Defense Show 2024: Maxar on course to have six observation satellites in orbit this year

14th February 2024 - 18:00 GMT | by Damian Kemp in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

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Maxar will launch six satellites this year. (Image: Maxar)

WorldView Legion, a fleet of high-performance satellites, will expand Maxar’s ability to revisit the most rapidly changing areas on Earth to better inform critical, time-sensitive decisions.

Technology and satellite company Maxar has said it expects to launch two Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) observation satellites within the next four months with another four in the second half of the year to create its WorldView Legion constellation.

The first two satellite to be launched will be sun-synchronous to replace existing satellites the company already has in the same orbit and the following four will be in a mid-inclination orbit providing surveillance of areas most wanted by customers, as opposed to the polar route of the first two satellites.

WorldView Legion has been designed to provide an improved level of continuity for existing missions and will, according to the company, dramatically expand its ability to “revisit high-interest areas and inform critical, time-sensitive decisions.”

The satellites will provide very high-resolution imagery to 30cm class and eight-band VNIR multispectral imagery for a variety of applications with precision geolocation accuracy.

The constellation will provide different product levels, with the most basic being mono and stereo imagery, and the next-level mpa projected with uniform pixel spacing for manipulation and analysis. The most advanced level has been described as ortho products designed for image viewing with high-positional accuracy.

The satellites will orbit at 450km, each measuring 3mx2mx2m without solar array and weighing approximately 625kg, with an expected lifespan of 10 years. The constellation will provide up to 15 revisits per day with a daily collection capacity of five million square kilometres.

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Damian Kemp

Damian Kemp has worked in the defence media for 25 years covering military aircraft, defence …

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