SpaceX is targeting Thursday, May 2, to launch the Maxar 1 mission to orbit from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The 14-minute window opens at 11:36 a.m. PDT, 18:36 UTC, and 20:36 CEST. If needed, a backup launch opportunity is available on Friday, May 3 at the same time.

This will be the 20th flight for the Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched Crew-1, Crew-2, SXM-8, CRS-23, IXPE, Transporter-4, Transporter-5, Globalstar FM15, ISI EROS C-3, Korea 425, and nine Starlink missions. After stage separation, the first stage will land on Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) at Vandenberg Space Force Base.

WorldView Legion is a planned series of high-resolution earth observation satellites from the US company Maxar Technologies. They are intended to replace the capacities of the WorldView-1, WorldView-2, and GeoEye-1 satellites.

SSL (formerly Space Systems/Loral), a subsidiary of Maxar, is building the satellites. Raytheon, a subsidiary of RTX Corporation, will provide the cameras. The satellites can record panchromatic resolutions of up to 0.29 meters. Images with resolutions of up to 1.16 m should be possible on a multispectral level. The satellites can photograph the exact locations up to 40 times a day.

A total of two satellites will operate in a polar orbit and four satellites in a sun-synchronous orbit.