Two Raytheon-designed imaging instruments have joined Maxar’s WorldView Legion satellite constellation.
These instruments were included in the first two of six planned satellites in the constellation, which will offer high-resolution satellite imagery with a revisit rate of up to 15 times each day over the world’s most populated areas, RTX, Raytheon’s parent company, announced from Arlington, Virginia on Friday.
“Raytheon’s advanced instrument technology sets a new industry standard, providing 30cm high-resolution satellite imagery that enables WorldView Legion to fulfill today’s customer needs and adapt to the evolving needs of tomorrow,” said Nicholas Yiakas, director of civil, commercial and special programs at Raytheon.
While developing the telescopes, the enterprise secured eight U.S. patents. The final product was brought to life through a 15-year research and development initiative to create an optical material that is lighter yet stronger than earlier versions. With this technology, Maxar was able to shrink spacecraft mass by over two times and lower time to orbit and launch costs.
Once an image is taken, it is focused onto Raytheon’s digital focal plane array, which provides high-resolution multispectral images.
The WorldView Legion constellation is positioned in low Earth orbit and is intended to support various applications within a range of sectors, such as national security, military and commercial mapping and maritime monitoring as well as telecommunications network planning, change detection and feature identification.
It will also contribute to humanitarian aid delivery in the wake of natural disasters and help collect other information on world events.