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SpaceX launched two Maxar Worldview Legion satellites from Cape Canaveral today at 9am EDT, according to Space.com.
This is the second pair of Worldview Legion satellites to jet into orbit, with the first pair launching from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California in May.
The Falcon 9 returned to Cape Canaveral around eight minutes after liftoff, with SpaceX confirming successful deployment of the third satellite around 50 minutes after launch.
Deployment of @Maxar’s third WorldView Legion satellite confirmed pic.twitter.com/LLx9egqf1z
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 15, 2024
There will eventually be six satellites in orbit. Representatives from Colorado-based Maxar Intelligence, the US government’s main provider of electro-optical images, say that once all six are launched it will “triple Maxar Intelligence’s capacity to collect 30-centimeter-class and multispectral imagery.”
Satellites Capturing Images of Earth From Sunrise to Sunset
While the first pair of satellites launched are in a near-polar orbit, this most recent pair will be in a mid-inclination orbit, capable of observing heavily populated areas between 45-degrees north and 45-degrees south latitude.
Maxar representatives explained that their full array of 10 electro-optical satellites will capture images around every 20 to 30 minutes from sunrise to sunset.
This marks the 79th launch for SpaceX so far in 2024, and is the Falcon 9’s 16th flight.
It’s been a busy week for the Elon Musk-owned company, with three missions launched over the last five days, including a Starlink mission on August 10, the Space Norway Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission (ASBM) on August 11, and another Starlink mission on August 12.
