Maxar 3 Mission: SpaceX Launches Earth-observing Satellites

SpaceX launched two Maxar Earth-observing satellites, WorldView Legion 5 and 6, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday (Feb. 4), at 2313 UTC. Falcon 9 upper stage deployed WorldView Legion 5 about 49 minutes after launch and WorldView Legion 6 roughly an hour after that as planned.

The Falcon 9 rocket's first stage successfully landed back on Earth at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station about eight minutes after launch, marking the particular booster's fourth launch and landing.

Tuesday's launch marks the third pair of Maxar's WorldView Legion imaging satellites to be launched by SpaceX, following previous successful deployments in May and August 2024.

"The launch of these two satellites will complete the first block of Maxar’s next-generation WorldView Legion satellites," Maxar representatives said in a prelaunch statement. "It will also be a major milestone in Maxar's efforts to significantly increase its very high-resolution 30 cm-class satellite imagery collection capacity, bolstering its ability to support customer needs for near real-time insights."

The WorldView Legion 5 and 6 satellites are designed to capture images with 30-centimeter resolution, which is detailed enough to identify objects approximately the size of a car hood from orbit.

The satellites launched Tuesday, will complete Maxar's first block of satellites and increase the company's capacity for tasking by 85% over the mid-latitudes of Earth.

WorldView Legion spacecraft are designed to serve various customers, including government agencies and commercial enterprises, by providing frequent and detailed Earth imagery for applications such as site monitoring, emergency response, and maritime surveillance.