Maxar completes Critical Design Review for first Maxar 300™ platform developed for the Space Development Agency

By: Maxar Technologies via Business Wire

July 24, 2023 at 10:24 AM EDT

Maxar Technologies, provider of comprehensive space solutions and secure, precise, geospatial intelligence, completed the first Critical Design Review (CDR) of the Maxar 300™ series bus for L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) in support of the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 1 Tracking Layer (T1TRK) program. The T1TRK program is designed to provide global warning and tracking of conventional and advanced missile threats, including hypersonic missile systems.

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.

[Editors: You can download high-res imagery of the spacecraft here: https://maxar.mediavalet.com/portals/T1TRK]

About Maxar

Maxar Technologies is a provider of comprehensive space solutions and secure, precise, geospatial intelligence. We deliver disruptive value to government and commercial customers to help them monitor, understand and navigate our changing planet; deliver global broadband communications; and explore and advance the use of space. Our unique approach combines decades of deep mission understanding and a proven commercial and defense foundation to deploy solutions and deliver insights with unrivaled speed, scale and cost effectiveness. Maxar’s 4,600 team members in over 20 global locations are inspired to harness the potential of space to help our customers create a better world. For more information, visit www.maxar.com.