Maxar 300 platform progresses for SDA missile detecting satellite constellation

Author: EIS Release Date: Aug 8, 2023

Maxar Technologies has announced it’s completed the first Critical Design Review of its Maxar 300 series bus.

 

Maxar 300 platform progresses for SDA missile detecting satellite constellation

 

The platform will be produced for L3Harris Technologies in support of the U.S. Space Development Agency’s (SDA) Tranche 1 Tracking Layer (T1TRK) programme. This mesh network of satellites is designed to provide global warning and tracking of advanced missile threats, including hypersonic missile systems.

 

Maxar is a space technology company that builds communications and Earth Observation satellites. Its inaugural Maxar 300 series bus is designed for eight or more space vehicles per launch, it says, while delivering the demanding low jitter and high power required for the missile defense mission.

 

 

Maxar 300

Features of Maxar 300 include flexible data interfaces to accommodate various payloads, support for intersatellite links (optical and radio frequency), configurable telemetry data architectures and use of chemical or electric propulsion.

 

 

 

The company, which is based in Palo Alto, California, said initial deliveries could be expected “early 2024”:

 

“We designed the Maxar 300 series platform to be quickly scalable,” said Chris Johnson, Senior Vice President and General Manager for Space at Maxar. “The team completed CDR just ten months from award, and we’re on schedule to begin production of our platforms later this year with initial deliveries in early 2024. Our customers need speed and agility while ensuring a superior technical product, and that’s what Maxar’s commercial experience can deliver.”

 

The U.S. Space Development Agency – which was created in March 12, 2019 – is a government body to create military space capabilities for the country, which “provide persistent, resilient, global, low-latency surveillance to deter or defeat adversaries”.

 

Private equity

In May of this year, Maxar Technologies was bought by the U.S. private equity firm Advent International (alongside a minority investor, BCI). Having gone private it is no longer listed on the New York Stock Exchange or the Toronto Stock Exchange.

 

Advent and Maxar had previously announced they were entering into a merger.