Summary Maxar 2 mission launching today with Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral. A total of six WorldView Legion satellites will triple Maxar's capacity for imagery gathering. SpaceX's Falcon 9 booster to lift off for 16th time today before landing back at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
SpaceX has given the green light for the Maxar 2 mission to launch today, carrying two WorldView Legion satellites into orbit. The Falcon 9 launch from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station will have a 60-minute window penciled in for 09:00 Eastern Time (ET). SpaceX to launch Maxar 2 mission today Maxar 2 is the second of three missions in partnership with space technology company Maxar Technologies.
The company is launching six state-of-the-art, $700 million WorldView Legion satellites to complement its existing constellation of four satellites and drastically enhance its satellite imaging capabilities. The Maxar 1 mission - also utilizing a Falcon 9 rocket - successfully launched the first two satellites in May from Vandenberg Space Force Base, while the Maxar 3 mission is scheduled to happen later this year. An example of the incredible image detail captured by one of the first two WorldView Legion satellites can be seen below.
According to Maxar, "The full Maxar constellation of 10 electro-optical satellites will image the most rapidly changing areas on Earth as frequently as every 20 to 30 minutes, from sunup to sundown." Once the six WorldView Legion satellites are all in orbit, they will triple Maxar's 30 cm-class and multispectral imagery gathering capacity. This will enable the company to capture more than 6 million sq km of imagery and deliver up to 15 satellite views of a single location each day.
While meteorological conditions have been deemed favorable for a Thursday morning launch, SpaceX has set a backup launch window for Friday, beginning at 09:00 ET. The company will livestream the launch from its X account, which you can access here . 16th Falcon 9 booster mission Today's mission will mark the 16th time this particular Falcon 9 booster - B1076 - will take flight.
This isn't a SpaceX record, as the company has two boosters - B1061 and B1062 - that have been used a remarkable 22 times, but is nonetheless impressive. The Falcon 9's reusability ensures the most expensive parts of the rocket remain intact, allowing SpaceX to drive launch costs down. Today's booster has been used on several notable missions in the past, including the 26th Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-26) mission to the International Space Station (ISS) and eight Starlink missions.
Discover more aviation news with Simple Flying. After stage separation, the reusable Falcon 9 will touch down back at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) approximately eight minutes after liftoff. SpaceX is approaching 80 Falcon launches already this year and has completed three launches in the last five days alone - this includes two Starlink missions on August 10th and 12th, as well as the Space Norway Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission (ASBM) on August 11th.
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