About Maxar Technologies

Maxar Technologies Inc. (Maxar) operates as a provider of comprehensive space solutions and secure, precise, geospatial intelligence. Maxar helps government and commercial customers monitor, understand, and navigate the company’s changing planet; deliver global broadband communications; and explore and advance the use of space. Segments The company operates through two segments, Earth Intelligence and Space Infrastructure. Earth Intelligence segment Earth Intelligence segment is a global leader in high-resolution, high-accuracy Earth imagery and other geospatial data sourced from the company’s own advanced satellite constellation and third-party providers to its Public Sector and Enterprise customers, as well as a provider of advanced geospatial information, applications and analytic services for national security and commercial solutions. In the Earth Intelligence segment, the company is a global leader in high-resolution, space-based Earth observation imagery products and analytics. The company operates a four satellite Earth observation constellation, providing the company with approximately 150 petabytes of imagery over the company’s history (referred to as the company’s ‘Image Library’) of the highest resolution, commercially available imagery. The company’s imagery solutions provide customers with timely, accurate and mission critical information about the company’s changing planet and support a wide variety of government and enterprise applications, including mission planning, mapping and analysis, environmental monitoring, disaster management, crop management, oil and gas exploration, and infrastructure management. The company continues to innovate as demands for new satellite technology and advanced analytic tools increase. In addition to the company’s Earth observation capabilities, the company offers Radio Frequency (RF) and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data, which provides more comprehensive and accurate geospatial insights for the company’s customers. Through the company’s updated National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (‘NOAA’) remote sensing license, the company is also able to collect non-Earth imaging (‘NEI’) for the company’s constellation and its next generation WorldView Legion satellites. Through this new license authority, the company can collect and distribute images of space objects across the Low Earth Orbit (‘LEO’) – the area ranging from 200 kilometers up to 1,000 kilometers in altitude – to both government and commercial customers. In the commercial satellite Earth observation industry, the company is a leader across the U.S. government agencies, international government agencies and enterprise customer verticals. The U.S. government is the largest customer of the company’s Earth Intelligence segment through the Electro-Optical Commercial Layer Program (‘EOCL Contract’), Global Enhanced GEOINT Delivery (‘G-EGD’) and One World Terrain (‘OWT’) programs, and various classified and unclassified contract vehicles. The company also provides geospatial services that combine imagery, analytic expertise and innovative technology to deliver intelligence solutions to customers. The company’s approximately 1,500 cleared personnel support analytic solutions that accurately document change and enable geospatial modeling and analysis that help predict where events will occur. The company’s primary customer of geospatial services is the U.S. government, but the company also supports intelligence requirements for other U.S. allied governments, global development organizations and enterprise customers. The company is also a global leader in satellite-derived 3D data for defense and intelligence markets, with software and products that enhance 3D mapping, Earth intelligence data, military simulation and training and precision-guided munitions. Offerings Customers can license the company’s imagery and data archives or place custom orders to task the company’s satellites for a specific area of interest. The company processes its imagery to varying levels according to the company’s customers’ specifications and deliver its products using the distribution methods and subscription services that are designed to best suit the company’s customers’ needs. The company offers a number of Earth Intelligence solutions, including: Satellite Access—Direct collection and access to the company’s satellite constellation anywhere in the world. The Direct Access Program (‘DAP’) enables customers to directly task the company’s satellites using the customer’s own ground station for secure, real-time imagery acquisition and downlink. The Rapid Access Program (‘RAP’) allows customers to virtually control the company’s constellation through priority tasking, predictable access and imaging operations with a web interface, while the company owns and manages the ground infrastructure. Additionally, the company supports the U.S. government with direct tasking utilizing the company’s integrated imagery production, distribution and operations with the U.S. government systems. This offering is contracted under the company’s EOCL Contract, which was awarded to the company by the National Reconnaissance Office (‘NRO’) in May 2022 as a five-year base contract and with up to five 1-year option periods. The EOCL Contract transitioned the imagery acquisition requirements previously addressed by the EnhancedView Follow-On contract (‘EnhancedView Contract’) and replaces the scope of the EnhancedView Contract with respect to such requirements. Geospatial Foundation—Highest quality foundational satellite imagery, basemaps and 3D data over any location on Earth. This foundation allows the company’s customers to fully understand, immerse and strategically plan outcomes before setting foot in a specific location or to immediately use the company’s robust imagery for their artificial intelligence (‘AI’) / machine learning (‘ML’) models, real-world metaverse applications and/or training purposes. The company’s Vivid imagery basemaps stitch high-resolution satellite imagery together into a single cloudless global view that provides an accurate, consistent and actionable foundation to support the leading mapping apps, global-scale environmental governance analytics and risk management decisions. High-definition (‘HD’) imagery leverages the company’s proprietary HD technology to improve visual clarity of the company’s native 30cm imagery to 15cm, giving analysts and ML models cleaner and more accurate data to analyze and deliver results. This technology allows the company to provide best-in-class accuracy of the world’s terrain in GPS-denied environments or when ground conditions are not ideal for human assessment or navigation. Analysis-Ready Data (‘ARD’) is preprocessed time-series stacks of imagery that are aligned and produced at a set standard to provide templated imagery and associated meta data for change detection, mapping and monitoring use cases. The company’s Precision3D offerings leverage its high-resolution Image Library to construct accurate, consistent and fully immersive 3D visualizations at global scale, including 3D surface models, 3D vectors, digital surface models and digital terrain models. Precision Mapping—GIS-ready datasets for expedited analysis. These offerings include Persistent-Change Monitoring (‘PCM’), BaseVue and Human Landscape. PCM leverages the company’s Image Library and ML models running on the company’s approximately 3.8 million square kilometer daily take to identify change indicators, historical patterns of development and infrastructure changes and provide actionable insights to the company’s customers. BaseVue is the global standard for land classification, including for natural resource management and environmental impact monitoring. Human Landscape utilizes key human geography features to enable analysts to better understand and develop responses that reduce operating costs and enable timely decision-making. On-demand Intelligence—Industry-leading technology, data and expertise to help solve the most complex geospatial challenges. The company offers a variety of subscription-based services that maximize the value of the company’s imagery, information products and analytic outputs for a diverse set of customer needs. The company’s flexible subscription options include cloud-based access to the company’s global image archive, in-house tools to search, exploit and share imagery and simplified integration for a customer’s existing workflows. These offerings include SecureWatch, Spatial on Demand, Crow’s Nest Maritime Monitoring and Security, WeatherDesk, SeaStar Information Service and the company’s analytic reports. SecureWatch is a subscription software as a service offering that provides customers a cloud-based source of near real-time global imagery basemaps, optical and radar imagery and analytics on features (e.g. roads and railways) and objects (e.g. cars and planes). This includes supporting the U.S. government with G-EGD. Geospatial Services—The company provides advanced geospatial information and analytic services to national security and enterprise customers that combine Maxar imagery and other sources of geospatial data, such as low-resolution satellite imagery, radar, weather and oceanographic data, elevation and social media, to reveal insights that help the company’s customers make better decisions. The company also develops applications to support global Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (‘ISR’) missions with constellation modeling, simulation and mission management, secure ground systems, data analytics to automate object detection, feature extraction, mission planning and predictive analytics. The company deploys these services through various cloud and on-premise computing platforms. The company’s intellectual property portfolio, including the U.S. and foreign patents, and Small Business Innovation Research (‘SBIR’) Phase III data rights, supports the unique technology the company provide to its customers. Additionally, the company supports people, organizations and initiatives dedicated to improving the health and sustainability of the company’s planet. Through the company’s Purpose Partners, the company contributes geospatial data and expertise to nonprofits that significantly benefit from using the company’s data to achieve their missions. These Purpose Partners include Amazon Conservation Team, Jane Goodall Institute, International Justice Mission, Team Rubicon and Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team. With the company’s Open Data Program, when crises occur, the company supports humanitarian organizations and communities with critical information to assist response efforts. The Maxar News Bureau is a partnership program with trusted media organizations around the world. The company provides satellite imagery as visual evidence of ground truth to promote global transparency and expose injustice. Access to the company’s high-resolution satellite imagery has enabled journalists to accurately report on areas that are too remote or dangerous to visit or are otherwise inaccessible. Earth Observation Constellation As of December 31, 2022, the company operated a constellation of four in-orbit and fully commissioned Earth observation satellites: GeoEye-1, WorldView-1, WorldView-2 and WorldView-3. The company’s annual collection capacity is approximately 1.4 billion square kilometers. the company has collected, and have available for use, approximately 150 petabytes in the company’s Image Library. The company re-evaluates the depreciable lives of its satellites annually based on established methodologies used for accounting purposes. The lives the company assign for depreciation purposes are typically shorter than the lives the company uses for planning purposes and the company’s history shows that in most cases the estimated useful lives of the company’s satellites have increased from the initial lives determined upon launch. WorldView Legion will be a fleet of six high performing satellites for which the company’s Space Infrastructure segment is acting as prime contractor. The company expects that WorldView Legion, in addition to the company’s current constellation, will revisit rapidly changing areas up to 15 times per day, an increase from four times per day, which will more than triple both the company’s capacity to collect 30 cm-class imagery and the company’s overall capacity in high demand areas. The company’s Earth observation satellites have advanced technical capabilities, such as maneuverability, size of collection area, collection speed, revisit time, resolution, accuracy and spectral diversity. Additionally, the company’s satellites are designed, manufactured and operated in the U.S. for assurance of the U.S. national security missions and data protection. Competition The company faces competition from companies that provide geospatial analytic information and services to the U.S. government, including defense prime contractors, such as L3Harris and Booz Allen Hamilton. Space Infrastructure segment Space Infrastructure segment is a supplier of space-based infrastructure, robotics, subsystems and information solutions to satellite operators and government agencies. In the Space Infrastructure segment, the company provides solutions for communications, Earth observation, remote sensing, on-orbit servicing, robotic assembly and space exploration. The company addresses a broad spectrum of needs for its customers, including mission systems engineering, product design, spacecraft manufacturing, assembly, integration and testing. The company’s principal customers in the Space Infrastructure segment are commercial satellite operators and government agencies worldwide. Offerings The company’s products, which are designed and manufactured in the U.S., include communications and imaging satellites and payloads; platforms for space exploration and hosting instruments for earth science; space subsystems for power, propulsion and communication; satellite ground systems and support services; space-based remote sensing-solutions; space robotics; and defense systems. Spacecraft 155 custom Maxar-built spacecrafts for Geosynchronous Equatorial Orbit (‘GEO’) satellites have launched with a combined 2,022 years of service. 72 GEO satellites have completed their missions and provided Maxar customers with an additional 386 years of operation beyond mission requirements. In addition, Maxar has manufactured and placed into service 81 low Earth orbit (‘LEO’) satellites. Maxar continues as a world leader in commercial GEO communication satellites and a global leader in commercial satellite manufacturing. The company’s 1300-class spacecraft platform is the world’s most popular GEO satellite; 94 spacecraft are in service, providing 99.9972% uptime availability for the company’s customers. The company continues to provide a high level of value and partnership to communications customers around the globe. Key platform features include a scalable, lightweight and high-strength structure, fuel-efficient attitude and station-keeping subsystems, high-efficiency and reliable solar arrays and batteries, and advanced command and control subsystems. A growing application for commercial geostationary communication satellites is the delivery of data-centric applications (such as consumer broadband, in-flight communication, maritime and 4G/5G cellular backhaul) via high-capacity spot beam satellites commonly referred to as high-throughput satellites (or ‘HTS’). The company introduced the first HTS satellite in 2005, which used the 1300-class bus. Maxar is building JUPITER 3, a transformational Ultra High Density Satellite, for Hughes Network Systems (‘Hughes’) to be designated EchoStar XXIV. This satellite is expected to be the world’s largest commercial communications satellite when it launches, and will power future generations of Hughes consumer, enterprise and aeronautical services across the Americas. In addition to continued leadership in the commercial communications sector, the company collaborates with customers to design and deliver smaller satellites to address growing demand for LEO and medium Earth orbit (‘MEO’) constellations. Maxar’s LEO capabilities will be effective for applications that require a multiple satellite constellation of identical satellites produced in a cost-efficient manner. 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, LEO constellations. In 2022, Maxar was selected by L3Harris and the U.S. Space Development Agency to design and build the platform for 14 spacecraft platforms for the Tranche 1 Tracking Layer supporting missile warning and tracking. The 1300-class platform is key to the company’s continued and growing partnership with NASA as well. The Psyche mission is a journey to a unique metal asteroid, named 16 Psyche, that appears to be the exposed metal core of an early planet–a building block of a solar system. The spacecraft leverages Maxar’s 1300-class platform and solar electric propulsion system, the highly efficient SPT-140. In addition, Maxar is hosting NASA’s Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (‘TEMPO’)—a commercially hosted pollution monitoring payload on a commercial communications satellite Maxar is building for satellite operator Intelsat. By hosting payloads on its commercial satellites, Maxar can help government agencies obtain access to space for instruments, sensors and other small missions without the cost of building a dedicated spacecraft. Similarly, the hosted payload helps commercial customers share the cost of the satellite bus, launch and operations. Competition The company’s primary competitors for satellite manufacturing contracts are: The Boeing Company, Lockheed Martin Corporation and Northrop Grumman Corporation in the United States; Thales S.A. and Airbus Defence and Space, a subsidiary of the Airbus Group, in Europe; and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation in Japan. Growth Strategy The specific elements of the company’s strategy across its two segments include: Earth Intelligence: Driving revenue growth through improvements in the company’s products; expanding its relationship with the U.S. government; growing the company’s installed base and penetration of international defense and intelligence customers; growing with and expanding the company’s installed base among enterprise customers; providing products that leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning; and delivering 3D products to global defense, intelligence and commercial customers. Space Infrastructure: Driving revenue through improvement in the company’s products and manufacturing and program capabilities; growing the company’s U.S. and international civil exposure; deepening the company’s penetration of the U.S. national programs; and providing flexible platforms to the company’s commercial customers. Government Contracts and Compliance with Government Regulations The company contracts with numerous U.S. government agencies and entities, including branches of the U.S. military and NASA. Research and Development The company’s annual research and development expenses from continuing operations were $40 million in 2022. History The company was founded in 1957. It was incorporated in 2018. The company was formerly known as MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. and changed its name to Maxar Technologies Ltd. in 2017 and then to Maxar Technologies Inc. in 2019.