Photo: Ed Cordero, Florida Media Now
SpaceX completed a doubleheader today; not that many people saw it. At 6:13 PM, Falcon 9 lifted off out of a gloopy fog at Launch Complex 39A and lofted the Maxar 4 / WorldView 5 and WorldView 6 satellites into orbit on the second successful mission of the day for the company.
Photo: Charles Boyer / ToT
The former side core of the Falcon Heavy that launched GOES-U in June of last year, Booster B1076, completed its fourth mission by returning to the fog and scattering the wildlife before touching down at Landing Zone 1 in Cape Canaveral. Despite the fog, a sonic boom followed and spread out through the Space Coast region.
Meanwhile, Falcon 9’s second stage and payload continued to orbit, which it achieved seconds after B1076 touched down. Two rounding burns later, the payload was deployed, marking yet another successful mission for SpaceX and Falcon 9.
Payload
WorldView Legion 5 and 6 are two of Maxar Technologies’ first constellation of hawk-eyed satellites providing Earth observations to the company’s clients.
Maxar Reseller Apollo Mapping describes WorldView Legion as
WorldView Legion is a constellation of six, 34-centimeter (cm) high-resolution Earth observation satellites owned and operated by Maxar Technologies. The first two Legion satellites successfully launched on May 2, 2024 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. On August 15, 2024, Legion 3 and Legion 4 launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The remaining two satellites are planned to launch in the near future.
WorldView Legion satellites offer 34-cm resolution panchromatic imagery, making them among the highest resolution commercial satellites available. They also capture multispectral imagery at 1.36-meter (m) resolution with eight bands: coastal, blue, green, yellow, red, red edge 1, red edge 2, and near-infrared (NIR). This spectral diversity enables enhanced analysis capabilities for a wide variety of applications including vegetation analysis and monitoring, mineral and hydrocarbon exploration, forestry studies, and land use-land cover classifications.
Once fully deployed, the WorldView Legion constellation will be positioned in various orbits to provide frequent revisits, with up to 15 revisits per day in some areas. Legion 1 and Legion 2 are currently in sun-synchronous orbits; and were joined by Legion 3 and Legion 4 orbiting at the Earth’s mid-latitudes (Legion 5 and Legion 6 will also be in mid-latitude orbits). At a 45-degree inclination, mid-latitude orbit, Legion 3 and Legion 4 have greater daytime coverage and more revisits in high-interest areas. With 90% of the world’s population living between 45° North and 45° South latitudes, the WorldView Legion constellation has shorter revisit times to these regions, while still covering the far northern and southern latitudes with two sun-synchronous satellites.
Photo: Eric Moore / Florida Media Now
Launch Replay
Next Launch
Another Falcon 9 / Starlink launch is scheduled for Friday, January 24th.
- Date: NET February 7, 2025
- Organization: SpaceX
- Mission: Starlink 12-9
- Rocket: Falcon 9
- Launch Site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
- Launch Window: 1:50 – 5:50 PM EST
- Payload: Starlink satellites
- Destination: Low-Earth Orbit
Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville
Author: Charles Boyer
NASA kid from Cocoa Beach, FL, born of Project Apollo parents and family. I’m a writer and photographer sharing the story of spaceflight from the Eastern Range here in Florida.
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