Maxar Technologies, provider of comprehensive space solutions and secure, precise, geospatial intelligence, announced a rebranded lineup of spacecraft platforms that reflects Maxar’s broad manufacturing capabilities and continuing investment to serve evolving commercial, civil and national security space missions.
The portfolio, which includes Maxar 300 series, Maxar 500 series and Maxar 1300 series buses, reinforces Maxar’s 60-plus years of satellite manufacturing leadership. These flexible platforms are designed to serve a variety of missions, ranging from proliferated low Earth orbit constellations to multi-orbit systems.
“Customers can come to us with a wide array of critical missions, and our spacecraft family offers the right platforms to fit their needs,” said Chris Johnson, Senior Vice President and General Manager for Space at Maxar. “These products are rooted in Maxar’s deep legacy of manufacturing flexible, reliable spacecraft, and our investments ensure they are relevant now and well into the future.”
Maxar’s family of platforms complement each other, and in some cases collectively can be part of the same solution:
- Maxar 300 series: First developed as the company’s proliferated low Earth orbit platform, the Maxar 300 series is our smallest and most modular bus. This platform is optimized for high-rate production, rapid constellation deployment and mission-level reliability.
- Maxar 500 series: A scalable mid-size platform designed for high stability and pointing accuracy. Maxar leveraged the investments and innovations on its WorldView Legion program to make this derivative bus, shaping the Maxar 500 series to be a solution that can be tailored for multiple missions and orbits.
- Maxar 1300 series: A familiar name for the 1300-Class platform, which is the world’s most popular spacecraft with over 90 in orbit. The Maxar 1300 series is reliable and customizable, commonly serving higher-power missions. The company continues to develop new payload and bus technologies that boost its value to current and future customers, and Maxar evolved the platform so it can be applied in more ways than geostationary satellites. For example, it serves as the baseline for the world’s most powerful deep space engine—NASA’s Gateway Power and Propulsion Element.
Dish Network has ordered a satellite from Maxar Technologies to expand high-definition broadcast services over North America.
The ES XXV satellite is expected to be ready for launch to geostationary orbit (GEO) “within the next few years,” Dish Network spokesperson Ted Wietecha said.
The satellite will be based on the Maxar 1300 series platform, the largest in the manufacturer’s product line with a mass of up to 6800 kilograms
Wietecha said ES XXV would also “provide greater flexibility” across its fleet of seven satellites. The company currently also leases capacity from four satellites for a broadcast service covering the United States and Puerto Rico.
The company recorded 9.75 million net pay-TV subscribers at the end of 2022, comprising 7.42 million for its DISH TV satellite broadcast business and 2.33 million for its SLING TV streaming service, which was a 268,000 decline compared with the prior year.
ES XXV is also the first GEO contract Maxar has announced this year in a market that has declined amid the rise of constellations in low Earth orbit (LEO).
Maxar secured contracts for two GEO satellites in 2022 in a year that only saw 11 orders, according to Euroconsult research, a far cry from the 15-20 that used to be ordered annually.
Chris Johnson, Maxar’s senior vice president and general manager of space, said the “GEO market remains important” for the company in a statement that accompanied its announcement.
Meanwhile, the company has been gaining traction for its LEO-focused Maxar 300 series, the manufacturer’s smallest and most modular bus.
