The WorldView Legion constellation is designed to deliver a combination of high-resolution, sub-meter accuracy and fast revisit rates.
MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. announced that its subsidiary Space Systems Loral (SSL) was selected to provide a next-generation satellite constellation for high-resolution Earth imaging to DigitalGlobe. Called WorldView Legion, the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites will more than double DigitalGlobe’s high-resolution capacity in important regions. The contract is valued at several hundred million U.S. dollars.
“The team at SSL worked closely with us to provide an innovative and flexible design that will yield exceptional performance, value and reliability,” said Dr. Walter Scott, DigitalGlobe founder, EVP and CTO. “WorldView Legion will provide our customers with even greater insights into global events of significance, allowing them to make critical decisions with confidence when time is of the essence.”
SSL entered into a firm-fixed price contract with DigitalGlobe to build the WorldView Legion satellites—the first of which is planned to launch in 2020—to replace the WorldView-1, WorldView-2 and GeoEye-1 satellites. WorldView Legion will be built in SSL’s manufacturing facility in Palo Alto, Calif.
