Maxar’s inaugural Maxar 300 series bus is designed for eight or more space vehicles per launch while delivering the demanding low jitter and high power required for the missile defense mission.

“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 comprehensive review examined all the principal elements of the new system, including structural design, power, attitude control and command and data handling. Maxar will build 16 platforms for the T1TRK program, each about the width of a conventional oven. Those dimensions help the SDA achieve its goals to significantly reduce size, weight, power and cost compared to traditional missile detection satellites. The SDA mission will also adapt and extend Maxar’s deep commercial communications satellite experience for new uses.

Designed, engineered and built in-house in California, the Maxar 300 buses are modular platforms that benefit from the company’s decades of experience building more than 90 spacecraft for low Earth orbit. Both the platform and Maxar’s production capacity are scalable, with the ability to address multiple missions with flexible production rates that meet delivery timelines.

Source: Maxar

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On December 16, 2022, Advent and Maxar announced that they had entered into a definitive merger agreement under which all outstanding shares of Maxar common stock would be acquired for $53.00 per share in cash, valuing Maxar at approximately $6.4 billion.

With the completion of the transaction, Maxar’s common stock has ceased trading and is no longer listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and Maxar’s common stock will also be de-listed from the Toronto Stock Exchange. An application will be made for Maxar to cease to be a reporting issuer in the applicable Canadian jurisdictions as a result of completion of the transaction.

Source: Maxar

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The OWT program delivers 3D global terrain capability and associated information services that support a fully accessible virtual representation of the physical Earth through the Army network. OWT is a key component of the Army’s Synthetic Training Environment (STE), which provides a realistic, common and automatically generated global geospatial dataset for simulation, mission command and intelligence systems to conduct collective training, mission rehearsal and mission execution at the point of need.

“Maxar is proud to continue as the prime contractor for the One World Terrain program, which supports current and future combat missions and is on track to become the Army’s authoritative source for foundation geospatial content and terrain data—from training to operations and targeting,” said Tony Frazier, Maxar’s executive vice president and general manager, public sector Earth intelligence. “The evolution of OWT shows how 3D terrain and information services are becoming essential tools for planning and decision-making not just for the U.S. Army but for a wide range of military, civil and commercial institutions.”

In 2022, Maxar’s Phase 3a work focused on improving 3D terrain dataset fidelity and refining the automation processes to generate realistic terrain derived from Maxar’s satellite imagery for high-fidelity modeling and simulation systems, as well as terrain data export capability for operational Mission Command Information Systems.

In Phase 3b, Maxar will focus on enhanced conflation with open-source geospatial data and enhanced training areas using multisource collection, high-resolution insets. The OWT prototype will evaluate the use of small unmanned aerial collections and the georegistration of existing U.S. Army terrain datasets.

OWT is a component of the modernization initiative led by the STE Cross Functional Team at Army Futures Command, managed by the Program Executive Office Simulation, Training and Instrumentation and contracted through Army Contracting Command-Orlando.

The original OWT contract was awarded in June 2019 to Vricon, which was acquired by Maxar in July 2020.

Source: Maxar

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The combined offering, which is expected to be available starting in Q2 2023 and be fully integrated by 2024, will represent the most advanced multisource geospatial intelligence solution for a wide range of government and commercial missions. Maxar will provide customers with assured access to the highest resolution commercially available Earth observation data taken day and night and in all weather conditions. This capability will also augment the high-revisit capabilities of WorldView Legion, Maxar’s next generation satellite constellation, enabling customers to see change in near real-time.

“Maxar and Umbra are breaking new ground for the geospatial intelligence industry with this multisource offering—though optical and SAR imagery are highly complementary, collection management across these sources has historically been siloed,” said Dan Jablonsky, Maxar’s president and chief executive officer. “By integrating dedicated capacity from Umbra satellites into our secure ground infrastructure, we can help our Access customers derive real-time insights from the highest resolution electro-optical and SAR data in the industry. Once combined with Maxar’s best-in-class geospatial analytics capabilities, this data will help customers more easily achieve mission success, particularly for defense missions.”

Maxar and Umbra have complementary capabilities that enable the delivery of the most advanced commercially available SAR data. Umbra’s SAR satellites can see through clouds, smoke and total darkness with industry-leading resolution, licensed down to 13 cm. Maxar will leverage decades of SAR processing expertise, as well as its own high-resolution optical imagery and 3D datasets, to further enhance the original SAR data and deliver more actionable insights.

“We are thrilled to partner with Maxar and integrate our industry-leading SAR data into their platform. Maxar is a world-renowned Earth Intelligence provider, so for Umbra to be chosen as their first ever SAR dedicated access partner is a huge vote of confidence both for Umbra and for the overall value that SAR data brings to customers,” said David Langan, Umbra’s co-founder and chief executive officer.

“This agreement will energize commercial SAR utilization world-wide and will support Umbra’s ambitions of building and growing a robust commercial business case,” said Gabe Dominocielo, Umbra’s co-founder and president.

Umbra’s SAR data will first be integrated into Maxar’s Rapid Access Program (RAP) platform, which provides customers with a secure web interface to virtually task Maxar’s high-resolution satellites through on-demand access windows.

Source: Maxar

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Under the Foreign Commercial Imagery Program contract, Maxar will provide multiple U.S. allies and partners with commercial imagery services consisting of high-resolution electro-optical, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and 3D data products.

To support these contract requirements, Maxar will leverage the following products:

• SecureWatch: Giving on-demand access to the world’s most recent, high-accuracy and high-resolution satellite imagery and analytics.
• Rapid Access Program: Providing the highest commercially available collection priority, predictable access plus virtual control of imaging operations to help meet mission requirements—all from any location on Earth.
• Precision3D: Enhancing situational awareness and decision-making, providing a precise, true representation of Earth that not only reflects the terrain in all dimensions but also provides an accurate foundation for additional data sources.
• Commercial SAR: Enabling customers to stay apprised of their areas of interest, regardless of light or weather conditions. Because radar imagery can penetrate through clouds and darkness, it is uniquely suited to provide reliable and continuous monitoring.

“Maxar is proud of our more than two decades’ experience supporting the sharing of critical, actionable geospatial information with U.S. allies and partners,” said Tony Frazier, Maxar’s executive vice president and general manager, public sector Earth intelligence. “Maxar’s high-resolution 2D and 3D imagery and data products are integral for high-confidence mapping, planning and operational support, helping end users make faster, better decisions and saving lives, resources and time.”

Source: Maxar

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Under the terms of the definitive merger agreement, Advent has agreed to acquire all outstanding shares of Maxar common stock for $53.00 per share in cash. The purchase price represents a premium of approximately 129% over Maxar’s closing stock price of $23.10 on December 15, 2022, the last full trading day prior to this announcement, an approximately 135% premium to the 60-day volume-weighted average price prior to this announcement, and a premium of approximately 34% over Maxar’s 52-week high.

Following the closing of the transaction, Maxar will benefit from the significant resources, operational expertise and capacity for investment provided by Advent. As a private company, Maxar will be able to accelerate investments in next-generation satellite technologies and data insights that are vital to the Company’s government and commercial customers, as well as pursue select, strategic M&A to further enhance the Company’s portfolio of solutions. This includes supporting the successful delivery of the new Legion satellite constellation, accelerating the launch of Legion 7 and 8 satellites and further growing the Earth Intelligence and Space Infrastructure businesses through investments in next-generation capabilities, such as advanced machine learning and 3D mapping. With approximately $28 billion invested across the defense, security and cybersecurity sectors in the last three years, Advent’s portfolio companies have substantial expertise supporting many satellite and defense platforms which serve the U.S. government and its allies as well as companies across the globe.

“This transaction delivers immediate and certain value to our stockholders at a substantial premium,” said General Howell Estes, III (USAF Retired), chair of Maxar’s board of directors. “Maxar’s mission has never been more important, and this transaction allows us to maximize value for stockholders while accelerating the Company’s ability to deliver its mission-critical technology and solutions to customers over the near and long term.”

“Today’s announcement is an exceptional outcome for stockholders and is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our team, the value Maxar has created and the reputation we have built in our industry,” said Daniel Jablonsky, president and CEO of Maxar. “Advent has a proven record of strengthening its portfolio companies and a desire to support Maxar in advancing our long-term strategic objectives. As a private company, we will have enhanced flexibility and additional resources to build on Maxar’s strong foundation, further scale operations and capture the significant opportunities in a rapidly expanding market.”

“We have tremendous respect and admiration for Maxar, its industry-leading technology and the vital role it serves in supporting the national security of the United States and its allies around the world,” said David Mussafer, chairman and managing partner of Advent. “We will prioritize Maxar’s commitment as a core provider to the U.S. defense and intelligence communities, and allies, while providing Maxar with the financial and operational support necessary to apply its technology and team members even more fully to the missions and programs of its government and commercial customers.”

“In our view, Maxar is a uniquely positioned and attractive asset in satellite manufacturing and space-based high-resolution imagery, with an incredible workforce and many opportunities ahead,” said Shonnel Malani, managing director and global head of Advent’s aerospace and defense team. “We have strong conviction in the growing need for the differentiated solutions Maxar provides, and our goal is to invest in expanding Maxar’s satellite constellation as well as supporting Maxar’s team to push the boundaries of innovation, ensuring mission success for its customers.”

Source: Maxar

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Founded in Puerto Rico in 2003, Wovenware has roughly 150 employees specializing in software development, service design, artificial intelligence and geospatial production. The company will become one of Maxar’s software development and AI/machine learning (ML) centers of excellence, with its software delivery experts partnering closely with other Maxar teams to develop new solutions for customers.

“In today’s everchanging world, our customers are continuously looking for ways to access our industry-leading products faster and more efficiently—AI and machine learning is critical to accelerating growth,” said Dan Jablonsky, Maxar president and chief executive officer. “Wovenware’s incredibly talented team of software engineers complements Maxar’s product development and delivery talent. Our teams already have a track record of working together to deliver customer solutions, and we are excited to work even more closely together to grow and expand our installed customer base.”

Since 2017, Wovenware has worked closely with Maxar on numerous customer delivery and internal software engineering initiatives, including for Maxar’s global imagery basemaps, Precision3D applications and more.

Specifically, Wovenware’s AI/ML and Data Production talent has supported Maxar projects ranging from UI design to full-stack delivery, producing new 3D terrain analytics tools, thousands of ML training data sets and dozens of automated object detection models. Wovenware’s co-founders, Christian González and Carlos Meléndez, will continue to oversee day-to-day operations of the company.

“Wovenware is excited to join the Maxar team. Having worked together for five years, we’ve experienced first-hand the synergies between our companies and the shared commitment to technology innovation and customer and employee success,” said Christian González, co-founder of Wovenware.

“Becoming one of Maxar’s software development and AI/ML centers of excellence enables us to accelerate our commitment to expand our employee footprint and bring the most exciting innovation and technology projects to Puerto Rico,” added Carlos Meléndez, co-founder of Wovenware.

Wovenware will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Maxar, which will continue to invest in Wovenware’s growth in Puerto Rico. Maxar will provide additional resources to help the company draw from the best engineering talent across the island as well as to support its efforts to bring more talent from the mainland and elsewhere back to the island.

Source: Maxar Technologies

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With this award, Maxar will continue providing more than 400,000 U.S. government users with unclassified, online and offline, on-demand access to high-resolution commercial imagery. Access to geospatial data and products from other commercial industry providers such as BlackSky and Planet Labs PBC are also available through the Electro-Optical Commercial Layer contract. Since 2011, the G-EGD program has enabled warfighters, first responders, intelligence analysts and civil government users to tap into Maxar’s 125 petabyte imagery archive and daily imagery collections for time-sensitive, mission-critical planning and operations.

“G-EGD has been instrumental in enabling NGA to provide unclassified access to satellite imagery for a wide range of U.S. government users and partners throughout the war in Ukraine,” said Dan Jablonsky, Maxar president and chief executive officer. “As the provider of G-EGD, Maxar is proud to help advance the U.S. government’s long history of providing global security and humanitarian initiatives with geospatial data and imagery.”

During G-EGD Option Year 2, NGA developed a roadmap to integrate five commercial synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data providers into the G-EGD platform by the end of 2023. To date, Maxar has developed ingest solutions for SAR data from Capella Space and ICEYE, to include data visualization and complete product discovery and delivery methods. Maxar will continue data integration efforts for Umbra and PredaSAR, a Terran Orbital Company, throughout Option Year 3.

Anyone who supports a U.S. Government mission may request authorization to access G-EGD. With more than 1.1 million square kilometers of new imagery uploaded each day, users have access to current imagery as well as more than 6 billion square kilometers of archived imagery for time sensitive, mission-critical planning and operations. Connect with your government point of contact to determine eligibility.

Source: Maxar

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SDA selected L3Harris as a prime for its Tranche 1 Tracking Layer as part of the initial Missile Warning/Missile Tracking warfighting capability of the National Defense Space Architecture (NDSA). Tranche 1 Tracking Layer will provide limited global indications, warning and tracking of conventional and advanced missile threats, including hypersonic missile systems.

Designed, engineered and built in-house, these modular satellite platforms illustrate Maxar’s ability to adapt and extend its deep experience to provide agile, affordable solutions in proliferated, low Earth orbit (LEO) constellations. With this contract, Maxar will provide a robust foundation for the integration of various mission payloads, including optical terminals for space mesh networking, Ka-band communications, and infrared sensors. Additionally, it will provide related ground, operations and sustainment support. Maxar will manufacture the platforms at its factories in Palo Alto and San Jose, California, for delivery in 2024, and launches are scheduled to begin in April 2025.

“Maxar is proud to support L3Harris on this critical Space Development Agency mission that highlights our expanding national security capabilities,” said Chris Johnson, Maxar Senior Vice President and General Manager of Space. “This program demonstrates that Maxar is primed to handle a diverse set of missions, and it exemplifies how our technology and experience are optimized to bring rapidly deployed, proliferated LEO constellations to market.”

“Developing and manufacturing commoditized, commercially available spacecraft for the National Defense Space Architecture is key for the Space Development Agency, and the Maxar platform delivers incredible capability to the L3Harris Tranche 1 Tracking Layer mission solution,” said Rob Mitrevski, Vice President and General Manager, Spectral Solutions, L3Harris. “The relationship created by our two organizations on this program creates a powerful toolset in our nation’s defense against evolving missile threats.”

Source: Maxar

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The EOCL contract will transition the imagery acquisition requirements currently addressed by the EnhancedView Follow-On (EVFO) and its predecessor contracts, held by Maxar for over two decades. EOCL’s expanded scope and value includes Foundation, Intelligence Area and Points collection plus the additional capabilities of shortwave infrared, non-Earth imaging, nighttime imaging and theater direct downlink. EOCL’s five-year base and five one-year options, as well as its flexible contract structure, allows for increased technology innovation and capability development, demonstrating an important commitment by the U.S. Government to increase its utilization of commercial imagery.

“Maxar has been a trusted U.S. Government partner for more than two decades, and we’re proud to continue to serve that mission under EOCL,” said Dan Jablonsky, Maxar president and chief executive officer. “This agreement provides a foundation for Maxar’s growth in the years ahead, as we continue through innovation and disciplined investment to meet our customers’ most demanding needs and generate long-term value for our shareholders. As always, we are committed to the mission success of our federal partners, and appreciate their longstanding trust in our capabilities, quality and reliability.”

Maxar has reliably delivered commercial satellite imagery to the U.S. Government since 2000. Maxar imagery is used daily by the U.S. Government for mapping, mission planning, emergency response and other activities that serve the intelligence, defense and federal civil agency user communities. Recent world events, including the war in Ukraine, have shined an unprecedented light on commercial geospatial intelligence and the value of programs such as EOCL that enable unclassified information sharing with U.S. allies and NATO partners.

Source: Maxar

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