EOInternationalMilitary

Maxar Wins €13.6M Contract with Dutch MoD

Maxar’s WorldView Legion sats ready for launch. Image: Maxar Space Systems

Maxar Intelligence has won a €13.6M ($14.4M) contract to be the eyes in the skies for the Netherlands Ministry of Defence, the company announced today.

The award comes as European allies look to boost their independent space and intel capabilities, in this case doing so by working with a commercial partner. 

The specifics: The contract will provide Dutch defense officials with a four-year subscription to Maxar Geospatial Platform Pro, which offers customers access to Maxar’s imagery archives in addition to the ability to task Maxar’s fleet of satellites to collect new data.

Maxar will help the Ministry of Defence use the geospatial data for missions including mapping, intelligence collection, and supporting missions on the ground. 

Seeing double: Last month, Maxar Intelligence announced $35M of tasking contracts with the governments of two undisclosed countries in the Asia-Pacific. 

Zero in: Maxar is set to boost its capabilities in orbit next month with the addition of its WorldView Legion fleet of satellites. The fifth and six satellites in the constellation recently arrived in Florida ahead of their launch—a milestone that will complete the first block of the new hardware. 

The addition of these sats will allow the EO provider to revisit some spots up to 15 times a day and triple how much 30-cm resolution data it can collect, according to a press release.

Related Stories
MilitarySatcomVC/PE

Lockheed Martin Invests $2M in Farcast

Farcast’s technology aims to increase the US military’s satcom connectivity, especially for highly mobile troops. The company’s main competitive advantage, however, may lie in its high-quality user terminals produced at low cost.

MilitaryPolaris

EOs, Commercial Cooperation, and Culture: A Recap of Polaris After Dark

The Trump administration has ordered the Pentagon to speed up its defense acquisition process. That will require trained staff to quickly get new commercial tech under contract, according to Col. Richard Kniseley, the senior materiel leader of Space Systems Command’s Commercial Space Office.

LaunchMilitary

NRO Launches First Payload Under New NatSec Contract

The NROL-145 launch is the first under the Space Force’s Phase 3 Lane 1 rubric—a launch contracting mechanism that will spend $5.6B on relatively simple launches with fewer requirements, which might suit new entrants to the national security launch game. 

Military

We Have Some Space Questions About The Golden Dome

President Donald Trump’s executive order calling for a new, satellite-based missile defense architecture around the continental US has defense contractors salivating, but questions about the cost, capabilities, and requirement for such a system remain unanswered.