Maxar Intelligence has unveiled the first images from its next-generation WorldView Legion satellites, with the initial pair launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, on 2 May 2024.
On 16 July 2024, one of these WorldView Legion satellites captured high-resolution, 30 cm-class images, showcasing the exceptional capabilities of this advanced technology. The images feature detailed views of key urban areas, transportation routes, and logistics hubs in San Francisco and Sacramento, California. These high-resolution satellite images are invaluable for precision mapping, site monitoring, geospatial analytics, and a variety of other critical applications.
“In today’s increasingly complex world, our customers need access to faster, more timely geospatial insights to support their most critical missions – from precision mapping to site monitoring to space domain awareness,” said Dan Smoot, CEO of Maxar Intelligence. “Soon, our WorldView Legion satellites will be collecting vast amounts of imagery, extending our collection capacity advantage for high-resolution imagery and enhancing the revisit rate of our industry-leading constellation. This added capacity will also strengthen our geospatial foundation, helping us build more sophisticated products that unlock the full potential of geospatial data and generate more actionable insights in 2D and 3D.”
Tripled 30cm-class imagery capacity
The two satellites are part of a set of six WorldView Legion satellites. Once in orbit, these six satellites will triple Maxar’s capacity to collect 30cm-class imagery, enable dawn-to-dusk collection, and allow Maxar to image the most rapidly changing areas on Earth as frequently as every 20 to 30 minutes.
The vast amount of high-resolution imagery collected by these satellites will enable Maxar to continue building leading-edge products that deliver faster, mission-critical insights. The increased capacity will fuel the company’s innovation, providing more near-real-time data. This data allows Maxar to deliver software products that leverage modern artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to extract faster insights from geospatial data.
The significant increase in high-resolution capacity will further improve the currency and quality of the company’s 2D and 3D data products. Customers using Maxar’s tasking products will have more opportunities to collect imagery of areas of interest throughout the day.
Maxar is currently progressing through the commissioning and calibration process for the first two WorldView Legion satellites and expects both satellites to be supporting customer missions soon. Maxar aims to launch all six WorldView Legion satellites by the end of 2024.
