Jane Edwards
Maxar Technologies is preparing to launch in the summer of 2023 the first two of the six imaging satellites planned for the WorldView Legion constellation, SpaceNews reported Monday.
“It’s been more about finalizing all of the preflight checks, completing the flight software and getting all of our last testing before we go downrange and put them on a rocket,” Dan Jablonsky, president and CEO of Maxar and a 2023 Wash100 awardee, said of the upcoming launch.
The first two WorldView Legion satellites with Raytheon Technologies-built imaging payloads are set to lift off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
Jablonsky said the company will also produce two more Earth-observation satellites for the constellation in response to the increasing demand for imagery driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The chief executive noted that the seventh and eighth WorldView Legion satellites will feature some upgrades and that the company has placed an order for long-lead time parts, including the optics packages, for the additional spacecraft.
