8/4/2021

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Good day, and thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Maxwell Technologies second quarter conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one on the telephone keypad. And please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star zero. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mr. Jason Gursky. Sir, please go ahead.

speaker
Bix Porter
Chief Financial Officer

Great.

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

Good afternoon and thanks, operator. Welcome to Maxar's second quarter 2021 earnings conference call. I'm joined today by the company's chief executive officer, Dan Jablonski, and its chief financial officer, Bix Porter. Both will make some opening remarks, after which we're going to open up the line for your questions. We're shooting to wrap up the call in about an hour. Before we get started, I'd like to refer listeners to the accompanying slides for today's presentation, which can be found on the company's website at maxart.com. Once there, please turn to slide two, where I'd like to remind you that part of today's discussion, including responses to various questions, may contain certain forward-looking statements, which represent the company's estimates, future plans, objectives, and expected performance at today's date. These statements are based on current assumptions that the company believes are reasonable but are subject to a wide range of uncertainties and risks that could lead actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking information. You're referred to the advisory regarding forward-looking statements contained in our quarterly earnings releases, earnings call slide decks, and the company's most recent MD&A section found in our Form 10-Q under the company's EDGAR profile at sec.gov or on the company's website at maxr.com. And with that, I'll hand the discussion over to Dan. Dan, go ahead. Thanks, Jason. Good afternoon, everyone. This afternoon, I'm going to cover the key highlights from the quarter and provide an update on the progress we're making on our 2021 priorities, including where we are with the Legion program, our next-generation satellite constellation. I'll also spend time providing some context on the company's artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities as they apply to Earth intelligence and how we're using them to drive growth. Please turn to slide three of the accompanying presentation. We generated 16% year-over-year revenue growth in the quarter, excluding the effect of a non-cash EV deferred. Of note, Earth intelligence grew 14% year-over-year, despite the fact that we're currently capacity constrained ahead of Allegiant launches. Growth here was driven by sales of 3D products to commercial and government customers, as well as solid performance and services to the U.S. government. Importantly, we also saw 150 basis points of adjusted EBITDA margin expansion, excluding EBITDA deferred, driven by improved execution and space infrastructure. We recently signed our first Legion capacity sale during the quarter with an international government customer as part of a large multi-year renewal. This follows the four contracts we announced last quarter to upgrade customer ground infrastructure to be Legion ready. We're making steady progress with our business development efforts ahead of the Constellation launch. Next, we also received our 11th renewal of the Enhanced View Program with NRO for the period starting September 1st of this year. As a reminder, we've been a trusted partner of the U.S. government for nearly 20 years, delivering commercial capabilities with superior quality, cost, security, and reliability on the current EV program and its predecessors. We're proud to support the U.S. government mission and look forward to continuing to work with the NRO as they increasingly adopt commercial imagery. We continue to perform well on this program, a track record we believe sets us up nicely for the upcoming EOCL competition, which is the electro-optical commercial layer, the successor program to EnhanceView. As we discussed during our recent investor webcasts, the NRO issued a draft RFP in June for the upcoming EOCL program, and we understand they expect to make award decisions by the end of the calendar year. Please turn to slide four for a review of the progress we're making on our 2021 priorities. We remain focused on providing high-quality Earth intelligence, which means driving Booking's growth, including for capacity on Worldview Legion, growing 3D capabilities, and extending the Enhanced View program. We're also continuing to make good progress on our AI, ML, and platform capabilities, and I'll discuss those more in a bit. Key recent wins included awards from the U.S. government to assist with geospatial production and persistent change monitoring, and another related to space domain awareness. In the international government vertical, as I mentioned a minute ago, we signed a large renewal that includes leaching capacity, as well as a contract with the Australian government for both 3D and imagery data. And finally, I'm excited to announce that we signed a multi-year, multi-million dollar licensing agreement with a large social media company for imagery-based maps, demonstrating our continued traction across all customer verticals. From an execution perspective, it was a good quarter, with the team generating solid book-to-ship activity and adjusted EBITDA margin performance. Even while we enjoy strong backlog as we perform on multi-year contracts, we continue to find good vectors for growth with existing and new customers. I'm pleased with the ability of the team to drive bookings and revenue in the same period, and this quarter was a good example. Moving to Worldview Legion. We have decided to delay the launch from the fourth quarter of 2021 into next year. This isn't a decision made lightly. There are two key drivers since the last update. First, while Honeywell has delivered the reaction wheel sets for the first two satellites, the hardware from Raytheon is coming to us later than anticipated. The Maxar team has been in El Segundo this week for pre-shipping reviews, and the first instrument is in transit to our facilities. The Raytheon teams have been working hard, and the second instrument should arrive in September, followed by the other four this fall. However, we had expected both of the first two instruments to reach us in July, and this has had a negative impact on schedule. Second, the return to work in California post a loosening of COVID restrictions on June 15th, while very positive, for a variety of reasons, has not led to the achievement of the schedule we anticipated with our integration, testing, and software teams. And of course, we're now all watching the Delta variant closely. We appreciate all that the teams have accomplished under challenging circumstances. COVID has been a difficult operating environment for both our suppliers and us, and it's clearly had an impact on the program. Given the hardware delays and remaining work streams, which include software, integration, integrated systems, and environmental testing, and launch phase operations, and the importance of this program for both our customers and Maxar's long-term objectives, it's important to get the launch right, and this requires a little more time. While we continue to look for ways to reliably accelerate production and test, we now expect a launch timeframe between March and June next year for the first launch. We are continuing our progress with the other four spacecraft. Remember, this is a six-satellite constellation. We've historically said that the second launch would be three to six months after the first. We intend to get them up as soon as possible. How quickly they launch after the first will depend on how much we can overlap the remaining work, including hardware deliveries, software, and testing schedules. To address the remaining work on the program, we've taken a number of actions. One, we've assigned overall program responsibility to Chris Johnson, who joined MaxRMA and brings significant program expertise to the company. Two, we assembled a mission assurance and red team to review and assess the program and remaining work streams. They provided important insight, which we've incorporated into the revised schedule discussed today. And three, we've added additional internal and external software engineering resources. We're driving forward diligently with a focus on maximizing the value of this program for both our shareholders and customers. With respect to our largest customer, the draft RFP for the EOCL program I mentioned earlier contemplates a 10-year program, which aligns with the 10-year-plus design life of the Legion Constellation. This is a good fit. We continue to expect that our current on-orbit assets that provide service to the U.S. government, now as well as the Legion Constellation, are tailored to meet the current and future needs of the U.S., Turning now to space infrastructure, where we're committed to delivering the best possible solutions and systems for our customers, and from a business standpoint, have been focused on establishing a foundation for future growth. On the power propulsion element for NASA, we completed preliminary design reviews and were awarded additional change orders. We were also awarded study contracts for national security classified work as we continue to look to shape new programs and further diversify the business. Importantly, we're beginning to demonstrate our competitive positioning for national security work, having recently been down selected from eight competitors to five on a program. That field will continue to narrow, but it's a positive sign that we've made it through this gate, and now we need to drive for a win on the program. We've also continued to execute. We launched Sirius XM8 in the quarter, successfully conducted commissioning ops, and turned the keys over to the customer last week. Last week, we also launched R1-V2 for Emberpel, and I'm pleased to report that we've been awarded Sirius XM9, Sirius' next geocommunication satellite. From an investment standpoint, we continue to work on new satellite and constellation designs, including modular spacecraft and proliferated constellations, as we look to serve commercial, civil, and classified programs with highly engineered and affordable solutions. Reflected in the financial results, we had a solid quarter as adjusted EBITDA margins continued their improvement, reflecting better performance and healthier program mix. Finally, on financial flexibility, we're continuing to drive strong financial results in the business and see our way to significant cash generation in the quarters and years ahead, both of which should drive debt and leverage levels lower. So, overall, pretty good financial performance in the quarter and some good bookings momentum across both segments and across our addressable verticals. Let me be clear, though. I'm not pleased with the additional legion delays. That said, the methodical work we're doing on the program are the right steps. We're building a generational constellation that is going to drive growth, profits, and cash flows for the next 10 years, and we want to be confident that we've got it right. Before I hand the call over to Biggs, I'd like to shift the discussion about another exciting portion of the business. Over the past two quarters, I've done deeper dives on some of the innovative technology we've been developing and deploying in Earth Intelligence to support the U.S. government by reducing sensor-to-shooters timelines on the battlefield and in space infrastructure to support both government and commercial missions. Today, I'd like to pivot back to Earth Intelligence to talk a little bit about our AI and ML capabilities and how we're increasingly using them to drive growth. And the timing of this is pretty good, given the amount of discussion in the marketplace about this technology and the various capabilities that exist out there. We've been at this for quite some time, and we benefit from having the best commercially available Earth intelligence data in the market. Please turn to slide five. Before we get started, I thought it would be useful to level set and quickly outline what artificial intelligence and machine learning mean in the context of geospatial intelligence. As you're aware, our constellation assets generate vast amounts of the highest quality commercial data available every day, over 3.5 million square kilometers of the Earth's landmass from all over the globe. To make that data useful for intelligence and commercial applications, it helps to snap it all together to create a geo-referenced data set that provides a reliable foundation to conduct analysis. Comparability and compatibility of high-quality data sets are preconditions for AI and ML algorithms to run at speed and at scale. Feature extraction, change detection, and object identification are examples. Using artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques, we're applying algorithms to data to identify objects and detect change at a small fraction of the time it would take humans to do so. Importantly, we're doing this at scale with high levels of predictability and accuracy. This in turn starts a virtuous cycle where we can proliferate products and analyses to provide geospatial intelligence answers, which in turn drives more demand for the underlying high-quality data. Please turn to slide six. Foundational elements of our AI ML capabilities include analysis-ready data, or ARD, deep core, platform capabilities like Global AGD and SecureWatch, and cloud accessibility of industry-leading imagery data, which will be further enhanced with Worldview Legion. ARD is comprised of pre-processed time series stacks of imagery that are aligned, produced at a set standard, and geo-referenced for accuracy using our precision 3D registration software. Aligned image stacks from ARD provide increased usable content, more accurate feature extraction, faster processing, lower storage costs, and homogenized inputs for analytic workflows. Our precision 3D registration software also allows us to take other sources of data, whether or not geospatial, and lock them down in a highly accurate fashion in the same reference chips. This kind of data helps our customers save time and jump ahead to the next stage of their analytic workflow with a more accurate and AI ML-ready baseline. Organizations and government agencies are enabled to use machine learning and artificial intelligence to extract roads, parcels and buildings, as well as identify land use and vegetation at scale, or pick out and count objects like military vehicles or commercial automobiles. As you'll note, we get better results with higher quality data sets. It's also helpful that we can train the algorithms against our vast 20-plus year archive of the planet. Please turn to slide seven. DeepCore is a machine learning engine that is a cornerstone technology the company uses to perform its AI and ML projects. It evolved from Maxar's direct experience as an industry leader, developing automated computer vision techniques for commercial and national missions. Importantly, it has deployed more than 100 models to detect 130 plus object types using multiple machine learning models, frameworks, and networks against multiple satellite, airborne, drone, and terrestrial sources. and it's been used in commercial and government clouds, as well as bare metal and hybrid environments, scaling from a standalone machine to an infinitely scalable cluster. With DeepCore, users can leverage the services and experience of the Maxar team or mix and match training data, models, and visualization capabilities within DeepCore or other repositories and tools. Please turn to slide eight. We maintain a constellation of satellites that generates the most and the highest resolution, most accurate geospatial data in the market. We're adding to that with the Worldview Legion constellation, which will play an important role in our AI and ML capabilities. Slide 9 shows the power of ARD deep core and high-resolution data working together with a car counting use case. As noted, this type of work can be completed in seconds versus the hour-long timeframes needed using traditional methods. This is a huge breakthrough in the use of geospatial intelligence and is a key reason why we see robust demand signals from customers and continued growth. Slide 10 provides some details on our global EG and SecureWatch platforms. Slides 11 through 17 provide additional examples, including the use of algorithms to more effectively monitor real estate development, to build 3D models and base maps at scale, to automatically detect ships in the ocean, and to produce crowdsourced maps built on multiple mission sets. We've been working these kinds of customer needs for years and believe the continued investments we're making in our data generation capacity and AI and ML technologies will allow us to continue to drive revenue growth in the future. I'd like to end with slide 18, which is one I shared earlier this year. As I mentioned then, one of the key goals of the investments the U.S. government has been making in its AI, ML, and Joint All-Domain Command and Control efforts is to achieve an advantage on the battlefield by shortening the sensor-to-decision timeline from space, which is all about seeing, identifying, targeting, and prosecuting dynamic targets at scale and at distance. Ultimately, DoD is driving to combine broad area surveillance and automatic target recognition to support long-range precision fires at speeds required on future battlefields. We believe the breadth of our coverage and the quality and accuracy of our imagery, as well as our software processing capabilities, are key enablers. Hopefully, all this gives a better sense of how AI and ML fit into the overall Maxar story and the continued investments we're making. We believe our efforts position us well in the market versus competitors, and that we will drive sustained growth for the company with customers to increasingly unlock value out of geospatial data and intelligence. And with that, I'm going to turn the call over to Biggs for a deeper dive on quarterly performance. Biggs?

speaker
Bix Porter
Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Dan. Please turn to slide 19, where we present your comparisons for the second quarter. Our net income for Q2 was $45 million, given primarily by strong performance in both Earth intelligence and space infrastructure. revenue increased 8% for the quarter and 5% for the year-to-date period. Excluding the effects of the enhanced review contract deferred revenue burn-off, total company revenues increased 16% year-over-year driven by recent wins in space infrastructure and new programs at Earth Intelligence. On a year-to-date basis, total company revenues increased 14%, excluding the effects of the EV deferred revenue burn-off, and adjusted BIDDA margins increased 260 basis points. Please turn to slide 20. Earth intelligence revenue without the effects of EV deferred increased 14% year-over-year in the second quarter, driven primarily by increases from international defense and intelligence customers, as well as additional growth seen with commercial and U.S. government customers. The increases experienced this quarter, particularly from international defense and intelligence and commercial customers, were driven in large part from book and ship orders on archive and 3D imagery, which had a positive uplift on adjusted EBITDA margins. Adjusted EBITDA margins in the second quarter of 2020 were also atypically high due to the timing of international defense and intelligence revenues. On a full-year basis, without the effects of EV deferred, revenue increased 9% year-over-year, driven by increases across our three customer verticals, and adjusted bid-dom margins were consistent. Please turn to slide 21. Space infrastructure revenue increased 12% year-over-year, while margins expanded 710 basis points, driven by the profitability of recent awards, as well as a reduction in negative EAC impacts, including those related to COVID-19 taken last year as we adjust our operating posture to the pandemic. On a full year basis, revenue increased 14%, primarily driven by an increase in revenues from commercial programs, as well as lower EAC growth due to the COVID-19 impacts we experienced in 2020. Adjusted EBITDA margins expanded 1,310 basis points driven by the profitability of recent program awards, partially offset primarily by reductions in revenue from the Series XM7 charges taken in the first quarter and modest increases in indirect and SG&A costs. Without the $28 million Series XM7 charge taken in Q1, year-to-date adjusted EBITDA margins would be roughly 11%. We have spoken over the last several quarters about the potential we see in this segment for sustained adjusted EBITDA margins of 10% or better. There will always be quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year fluctuations based on EECA accounting and program mix, but we are pleased with our progress. Please turn to slide 22. The company generated $23 million of operating cash flow for continuing operations in the first quarter and invested $55 million in CapEx. I apologize, wrong quarter. It's a quarter. Operating cash flow for the quarter was negatively impacted by the timing of cash receipts, including $26 million from international customers that were collected in Q3. We have a $13 million tax benefit we recorded in the quarter for recovery of B tax paid last year. This is enabled by our equity issuance, but that cash is not in our cash from ops yet and will likely come in later this year or next year. Please turn to slide 23. We had roughly $429 million in liquidity at the end of the quarter, and our bank-defined leverage ratio ended the quarter approximately four times. Net debt increased modestly quarter-over-quarter due to the timing of a few large cash receipts slipping to Q3. Bank-defined leverage increased slightly, primarily due to the roll-off of EDV-deferred revenue on a trailing 12-month reported basis. And now please turn to slide 24. Guidance remains unchanged from what we issued the previous quarter. And this slide is inclusive of the charge we took in the first quarter related to Sirius XM7 satellite. We're leaving ranges wider than we typically would at this point in the year, as the second half of the year could be impacted by the timing of product and data deliveries just as we experienced in the current quarter. Revenue guidance for Earth intelligence remains unchanged from what we issued at year end, with a targeted range of $1.05 to $1.095 billion. At the midpoint of our guidance, we expect revenues in the third and fourth quarters to fall slightly below our Q2 run rate, which has the uplift of the book shift dynamic I spoke to earlier. Revenue expectations for space infrastructure remain in the range of $735 to $770 million, and we expect revenues to remain roughly consistent with Q2 as we continue to execute on commercial awards. Turning to adjusted EBITDA, no change to the outlook range for Earth intelligence. Margins this quarter were positively impacted by the Q2 book shift dynamic, and we expect to see modest margin contraction in the second half of the year. Additionally, as we pointed to in the last quarter's call, We expect some incremental costs in the second half of the year related to the Legion constellation as we continue investments on our ground and secure operations architecture. No changes to adjust the BIDDA for space infrastructure, and we have left the same guidance range as presented last quarter. We continue to expect margins of space infrastructure to be 10% or better as we continue to execute on our backlog. At a consolidated level, our guidance for adjusting BIDDA also is unchanged. On a consolidated basis, revenue is expected to increase the second half of the year. This is driven primarily by the non-recurring $28 million charge we took in Q1 on Series XM7, as well as the continued backlog execution we expect to see in the second half of the year. Revenue and adjusted EBITDA are expected to be more heavily weighted in Q4 than Q3. We've not changed our operating cash flow guidance, and we expect to be free cash flow positive in the second half of the year and the full year. Recall, we typically face quite a bit of uncertainty given the timing of working capital changes. For the first half of the year, operating cash was in line with our expectations, but was negatively impacted by 161 million in unfavorable working capital changes. Of the unfavorable $161 million in working capital, $72 million is from accounts receivable and includes the $26 million from international customers we've already collected in Q3, as well as an additional $46 million that we expect to collect this quarter from customers, including on recently announced awards. Accounts payable and other liabilities account for another $60 million, and we expect that to flip in our favor. driven in large part by the timing of incentive and interest payments that fell in the second quarter and in the first half. Stated at a high level, these working capital changes were driven by the normal outflow in the first half for interest in the retirement of year-end liabilities, the timing of programs and progress of space infrastructure, and a few large cash receipts that slipped from Q2 to Q3. Operating cash flow will ramp up in the second half of the year as that dynamic flips in our favor, and we realize the interest savings in the second half of the year with the first quarter equity raise and debt paydown. The ranges for CapEx remain the same, and we expect to see a ramp in the second half of the year driven by the Legion program. Total CapEx in the Legion program has grown as a result of the delays we've experienced and will primarily affect next year by roughly $30 million. This year's spend includes approximately $25 million of launch and insurance payments associated with the first launch. Even though a first launch in March to June would likely put those payments in the February to May 22 timeframe, we do not want to take those payments out of this year's guidance until we're certain they will slide in the next year. We still expect to be free cash flow positive in the current year, even with the insurance and launch payments. We've not given guidance for 2022 beyond what I just covered up about in the Leasing Cap X edition. There will be puts and takes, but we still expect growth in earnings next year, even with leasing delay. We also expect to be increasingly free cash flow positive, regardless of where the first launch payments land from a timing standpoint. As you know, our 2023 outlook contemplated $165 million of adjusted growth in Earth intelligence between 2020 and 2023, with half of that, about 80 million, attributable to Legion capacity. The delay in the program could have an impact on our ability to ramp capacity-driven growth, but it's too early for us to say definitively. We'll look to update you further as the schedule for launches becomes clearer. To wrap up, we had a solid quarter with growth across both Earth intelligence and space infrastructure, and we are tracking to our 2021 guidance targets. Looking forward, we're focused on the EOCL program with the NRO, driving non-capacity-related growth through investments in Earth intelligence products and diversifying the space infrastructure segment across commercial, civil, and national security programs. The demand backdrop and interest in space-based capabilities is robust, and we believe we are well-positioned to take advantage of the growth opportunities in progress. Operator, let's now begin the Q&A.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star, then the number 1 on the telephone keypad. Again, that will be star 1 on the telephone keypad. And to rejoin question, press the pound key. We have the first question comes from the line of Seth Safeman of JP Morgan. Your line is now open. You may ask your question.

speaker
Seth Safeman
Analyst, JP Morgan

Thanks very much, and good afternoon. I guess, Dan, Along the, you know, maybe if you could lay out in some more detail, sort of the schedule for launch from, you know, where we are today, you know, into kind of the spring of next year, and, you know, what the various boxes are that the company needs to check and, you know, what of those boxes kind of has emerged more recently? Okay.

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, sure thing, Seth. So we do have a slight delay to the legion program of a few months. As we knock down the large pieces of the program, I get more and more confidence in the schedules that go out. You know, to kind of reiterate, hardware deliveries have knocked us off schedule some, as well as some of our expectations about the loosening of COVID restrictions and what it meant to be getting back to the office and how fast we can accelerate some of the remaining work that has to happen. The other thing we had done is we've done a red team and a mission assurance analysis, and that's factored into our schedule assumptions going forward. As we go forward, the first thing we've got to do is we've got to make sure we've got all the hardware there for the launches. So we do have the two sets of reaction wheel assemblies from Honeywell, so that's good. The others still have to come for the other six legions, but we've really brought a schedule to do that. And we've got to have instruments. The first instrument has completed its pre-ship review and is en route to our facilities in the Bay Area right now, so that's good. We've got one of six. We expect the second one to show up. sometime in the September timeframe, and then the other four show up throughout the fall. Once we get those instruments in place, then we can complete our final integration of that hardware into the space vehicles and begin thermovac and vibration testing on the entire spacecraft. So there has been testing done at the component level with our suppliers, and that's why we originally had some of the delays to get through that with Raytheon, But now we need to get the fully integrated spacecraft into our environmental testing protocols. We also need to run hardware and software simulations on them, system by system. And some of those we'll do in the thermal vac chamber, and some of those we'll do in our metal lab facility in San Jose and Palo Alto. Once we complete those and load on fully integrated and finalized software, and we'll be running software simulations in our virtual environments as well to run lots and lots of different simulations across different sets of GPUs, We'll then complete the pre-ship review on the fully integrated software-tested spacecraft, send those down to launch range. Then we've got X number of weeks down at the facilities with SpaceX at the Cape Canaveral location. We'll complete our final pre-launch protocols. And then we'll go into launch phase operations. After we finish launch phase operations, then there's somewhere on the order of 30 to 90 days of IoT that we go through the satellite to put it through its shakeout phases, make sure they're both working. This will be just a little more complicated because the first one will be commissioning two satellites at once. We haven't done that before. And then they'll go into imagery and revenue operations, and we've definitely got pent-up demand for them. I guess the other thing I'd just stress is, you know, we've got six coming through the process, too, so the first two are definitely important. But once you get that first barrier breakthrough, then the rest kind of follow more smoothly in the wake. And we've seen that with the instruments. We've seen that with the reaction. We've seen that with every piece of the program along the way.

speaker
Seth Safeman
Analyst, JP Morgan

Okay. Okay. Thanks. Thanks very much. That's helpful. And then maybe as a follow up, can you talk about the, you know, the opportunity set and space infrastructure for, you know, new orders in the second half? And, you know, how you think about where the backlog to that segment might appear?

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, sure. So, you know, we've said before, and we kind of expect this at the same time today, is that we expect the geocomsat market to be about flattish. But we'll be looking to get our fair share of those awards going forward. I think it's a great sign we get the SiriusXM9 award, and there are definitely awards out there for us to win. On the LEO opportunities, those are a bit more nascent, but we're in the hunt on some of those, and we've been paid to do engineering study contracts on some of those recently, and so we're working on that front as well. And then on the other two pillars of the strategy there, we continue to work with NASA. Timelines and budgets are always a little more subject to the vicissitudes of the U.S. government, but we think that's going to be a strong hunting ground for us, particularly as we perform well on NASA programs like OSAM and SPDR and the PPE that just completed its preliminary design reviews. And then on the national security front, you know, we're still in the early innings, but it's a good sign that we're getting paid for study contracts, that we made it through a first set of down selects. We've still got more to go to win that program. But with the national priorities the way they are, we think Maxar provides a lot of great capability for the U.S. government to work with us on future programs.

speaker
Seth Safeman
Analyst, JP Morgan

Great. Thanks very much, Dan.

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Seth.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you. We have the next question comes to the line of Tanis Mouskapoulos of BMO Capital Markets. Your line is now open. You may ask your question.

speaker
Thanasis Mouskopoulos
Analyst, BMO Capital Markets

Hi, good afternoon. Dan, just regarding Varicon and the traction there with the 3D imagery, just remind us, do Varicon sales tend to be one time in nature or do you have a subscription offering there the way that you do on your 2D imagery?

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

Yes. Sorry, Thanos. Good to speak with you. So there are certain aspects of the programs, for example, One World Terrain is one of the biggest programs we're running, that is much more of a subscription-based nature to it. So larger contract awards, services on top of the imagery, and then creating the the full-on simulated and virtual environments that we'll be doing that encompass the 3D imagery. We do have some recent awards, though, and we'll continue to do these, too, where it's operated more like our traditional earth imagery side of the business where we do a data delivery, get paid for that, and recognize it in the same quarter. So we saw some of that happen in Q2 here, and that had a nice trend of positive results we were able to report.

speaker
Thanasis Mouskopoulos
Analyst, BMO Capital Markets

Okay. And just on the 2D side, any update in terms of your subscription offerings there, like SecureWatch and others? How that's progressing?

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, we're really excited about the continued performance that they have. Global EZT is the largest program we have with the U.S. government, and we've got over 400,000 users on that program and continues to use very strong demand signals as we continue to fund that out into the future. SecureWatch is the commercial version of that that we've been working with international defense and intelligence customers on as well as commercial customers. And it's been a really good sign for those and our online base maps and other product offerings that, you know, that's what, in a capacity-constrained environment, those are the things that led to the growth in this quarter for us.

speaker
Thanasis Mouskopoulos
Analyst, BMO Capital Markets

Okay. And then finally, just in terms of to clarify, I mean, Bob is a strong beat this quarter, but you're not raising guidance. So it's part of that dynamic because, you know, the upside versus what you were expecting internally, a lot of that came from, you know, sort of non-recurring revenue.

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, I'll let Biggs take that one in a second. I think what you were asking about was the, you know, strong beat in the quarter. Why didn't we take guidance up? Part of that has to do with some of these large-type awards that we've got factored in the Q3 and Q4, and depending on what side of the line they slip on, we don't want to get ahead of our skis. But, Diggs, would you like to add any more?

speaker
Bix Porter
Chief Financial Officer

I think that's fair. We said we were expecting a substantial increase this year, $100 million in product sales, including 3D sales, other products, And the timing of those, obviously, can vary. And one quarter to the next creates some lumpiness. And we just felt like we had, you know, roughly an acceleration of those into the first half for some of this great second quarter. We were going to not presume that it's a net positive for the year at this point in time. Obviously, we left the range of our guidance fairly high to accommodate the possibility that there could be some boost in the second half above our baseline assumption that puts more of that in this year, and that would be great. Great.

speaker
Thanasis Mouskopoulos
Analyst, BMO Capital Markets

Thanks, Dr. Larson.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Michael Cermoli of TruViz Securities. Your line is now open. You may ask a question.

speaker
Michael Cermoli
Analyst, TruViz Securities

Hey, guys. Good evening. Thanks for taking the question. Just on the World View Legion here and the delays, I mean, can we parse out, you know, how much of these delays are sort of on you guys and how much are on the suppliers? I mean, I kind of You know, there's always supplier challenges, but, you know, at the end of the day, it's your satellite, it's your program. You know, it seems like the slips are encompassing a little bit more than just, you know, kind of hardware issues.

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, thanks, Michael. So, I mean, look, the hardware delays have definitely contributed to it. You can't get into integration and testing, and you can't launch without, you know, things like reaction rules and instruments. Some of them are also on us, though. Some of that was expectations we came from operating out of a COVID environment, and some of the acceleration for a variety of factors we thought we'd see in the program coming into, you know, as things snap together and you get to run integrated testing on hardware and software and the procedures we're doing. And so, you know, part of what we've done to address that is to do the mission assurance analysis that we've done, and that's helped us firm up our understanding of the schedules and the remaining work items that we have. We've been adding additional resources to the program in software and the engineering side. And, you know, we've got very strong program management people, including Chris Johnson, now that's on board here. So, You know, it's a combination of everything, but, you know, we are where we are when we're taking decisive action to get the program launched in the right format for its very important missions that it has to do.

speaker
Michael Cermoli
Analyst, TruViz Securities

So what I guess in the other, you know, talking about the pressure of the slide, you know, if we're looking at a worst case of June or, you know, maybe other delays, you know, why not just pull the 23 targets that you guys have out there right now? I mean, are they actually achievable and realistic?

speaker
Bix Porter
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, so I think it's premature to go pull them. We don't literally, you know, update them for every line item every quarter. That's just not practical when you talk about long-term guidance. But clearly there is some risk here, so that's why I, in my prepared comments, mentioned the $80 million that we assumed that we would have as a ramp-up associated with the lesion capacity coming online. But there's a lot that we're doing to mitigate that as well. Really, it's not just a matter of the timing of the launch. It's also the slope of the ramp up in the revenues. And we've been in discussion with customers on being Legion ready. We've signed – we talked about this before – signed four customers to date for ground infrastructure improvements so that they can be ready for Legion, and they're spending their resources to do that. We've announced our first Legion capacity sales. Our sales teams are out there working with the customers to ensure as best we can that the ramp up will be as steep as we can make it. So we're giving you an idea of what the risk range is. It's just a little too early to say definitively exactly where we'll land and how much of that might be realized or how much might be offset by other things that we would do. It's just a little too early to be definitive and just literally revise the guidance.

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

Maybe on top of that, I'd note that beyond the Legion growth, there was also product growth coming from 3D and our other products as well, and those are doing well. So, you know, we're going to look at all of the line items and the puts and takes to them and the things that are in our control and the things that aren't and give our best view of it when we have that.

speaker
Michael Cermoli
Analyst, TruViz Securities

Got it. Last one on the E O C L contract. I mean, this is seemingly becoming a pretty crowded space. I think we've talked about it prior with all these upstarts, but I mean, how important is it that you have a operating satellite in orbit by the time this is awarded? I mean, is this going to have any impact on, you know, that that contract award, maybe how the award gets parsed up among certain participants?

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, well, I think the first thing I'd note is we have the world's best constellation on orbit right now. The four satellites that we operate provide not just amazingly high quality, but high accuracy and large-scale coverage of the planet, and we're designed to meet the government's mission needs. The Legion constellation comes in behind that and beyond and on top of it. So, you know, as we worked our way through that EOCL draft RP and all of the other work associated with it, we think for mission continuity purposes and otherwise, we're in a good spot. We still got to go out and win. Nothing's ever given, of course, but where we are today and with the assets we have and with the assets we'll be bringing on, you know, a few months later with the Allegiant Constellation, we feel like we're in a pretty good spot. This isn't the first base program that's slid a little bit to the right, and, you know, that customer's understanding of it as well. Got it. Thanks a lot, guys. Thanks, Michael.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you. Next question, we have the line up from Epstein of Bank of America. Your line is now open. You may ask a question.

speaker
Michael Cermoli
Analyst, TruViz Securities

Hey. Good afternoon, guys. So the re-up of the enhanced view contract, have terms changed? I mean, how are the terms in the re-up compared to what just ran out?

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

Well, so nothing's run out, just to kind of clarify that. The September announcement was the option exercise of the 11th year of the Enhanced View and the Enhanced View Follow-On Program, which we've been performing on and meeting all of our mission criteria dozens and dozens of months in a row now. I want to kind of clarify that piece of it. And we're under contract through 2023 on that. If nothing happened on the Enhanced View commercial follow-on layer, then we'd stay under that contract. We think we're very well positioned with the EOCL as it comes forward because There are very important components for mission continuity, past performance, operating in the type of environment the U.S. government likes us to operate, as well as the quality and consistency of the data and coverage of the data that Maxar provides. So definitely we're one of three companies that won study contracts, but we continue to perform very well. We think the share of the amount that the NRO will spend in the future on commercial satellite programs is growing based on, you know, funding decisions we've seen as well as statements made by NRO as well as what we see as the direction of the, you know, the theme of the U.S. government here. So we think we're in a pretty good spot, but we've got to keep driving hard. Never take anything for granted. We've got to go win.

speaker
Michael Cermoli
Analyst, TruViz Securities

So, I mean, wasn't it just awarded? I mean, didn't you have an announcement?

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, yeah, we announced the exercise of the option year for the 11th year of the Enhanced View Follow-On Program.

speaker
Michael Cermoli
Analyst, TruViz Securities

All right, and that option is similar economics to the previous one?

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, it's the exact same as what we've been performing on for the past several years in a row here.

speaker
Michael Cermoli
Analyst, TruViz Securities

Okay, all right, I just wanted to confirm that. And then can you – I mean, just maybe it's semantics – But what's red teaming mean? I mean, I have defense companies. Things mess up, and they say red teaming, and then they continue to mess up. I have no clue what red teaming means.

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

No, that's good. Man, I'll tell you, we do a lot of jargon around here. We do a lot of acronyms, and you've got to get a code book almost when you join a company. But what we mean by that is we had people completely independent – the program, come in and do a deep dive review of the program and the schedules and the remaining work streams and the mission assurance that we've got related to it, which have informed the next steps we're taking as well as the schedule decisions we're making here. So it was experts independent from the Legion program that went in and did a deep review here.

speaker
Michael Cermoli
Analyst, TruViz Securities

Now, okay, so help me understand, why was that necessary if a core business of what you guys do is this? Because aren't you the experts?

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, but just like when you have an internal audit come in and look at the books on the auditors, it's nice to have people come in independently, particularly people that aren't associated with the program and the level of expertise we've got across the company and some external resources as well to double-check us. I mean, these are 10-year assets. We're spending a lot of money on them. They're critical for national defense priorities. And it's good to have somebody test the theories that we've got, even though we're very good at what we do.

speaker
Bix Porter
Chief Financial Officer

It's not at all unusual in aerospace.

speaker
Michael Cermoli
Analyst, TruViz Securities

Yeah, I guess. I don't know. It seems to come up when programs are off the rails. All right, guys. Thank you. Thanks, Michael.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

We have the next question comes from the line of Peter Armand of Beard. Your line is now open. You may ask your question.

speaker
Peter Armand
Analyst, Robert W. Baird & Co.

Yeah, good afternoon, Dan. Thanks. Hey, Dan, maybe just the solid margin performance we saw at space infrastructure, maybe you could – I know there was less EACs, and it seems like you had some growth on some commercial programs. But maybe you could just talk a little bit about how sustainable this margin level is because it certainly seems like it. a pretty high level.

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, I'll turn it over to Beggs for forecasting sustainability. I just want to give a shout out to our teams that are performing on the space side of the business. I mean, they've been working and grinding really hard to keep programs on track and on record, and Mixit certainly helped us in that, you know, that dynamic. But a lot of great work has gone on to set the preconditions for those kind of results.

speaker
Bix Porter
Chief Financial Officer

Beggs? So it's a great question. It's not a real simple one to answer. I can say certainly that our, as we've said before, our targets were to be 10% or better. We're running hotter than that right now. So, you know, while this is very good, it's not something we're going to say, hey, you know, it will always be that way. There will always be differences in program mix, both from the standpoint of cost type versus fixed price as they go forward, assuming we execute our strategies on diversifying the business base. And you're also going to have differences in one contract to another just in terms of its performance characteristics. And any given quarter also can have positive uplift from margin changes or EAC changes and negative ones. You know, you're going to have fluctuation in time. That's kind of pretty certain. We feel good about our ability to enter into contracts and perform at the kind of levels of, you know, 10% or better. But a lot will just depend upon, you know, quarter to quarter and year to year total volumes and the mix of contracts.

speaker
Peter Armand
Analyst, Robert W. Baird & Co.

Okay. I appreciate the call, Biggs. And then just, Dan, if I could just circle back on, On Legion, just, you know, you've talked a little bit about, you know, or I guess prepping for signing up your customers. But, you know, this does look like a pretty steep ramp. I mean, maybe you could just, you know, how do you de-risk, you know, some of that or give a little color around the steepness of the ramp of signing up customers?

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, so the first way to de-risk is actually to get the customer signed up, which we've been doing well here. The four international defense and intelligence customers that we announced that are upgrading the ground infrastructure to work with Legion, as well as the one we announced this quarter that actually signed up for Legion capacity as part of their program. um we believe that commercial customers will be pretty soon to the table as well so we'll look forward to to um announcing them in future future business here future calls um the other things we're doing are remember this is a six satellite constellation not just the first two so we have levers in a six satellite program to uh to not just get through the first launch, but to then look at how we model the work after that for follow-on space-based work, as well as the lessons we get and the lessons we learn from the first set of commissionings, as well as the fact that this isn't the first satellite to this class we've commissioned, but we've commissioned satellites before. and gone into revenue operations pretty expeditiously. The other thing I'd say is, look, I don't like the delays. We'd prefer to be talking about being on time on the program here. But it does give us some additional prep time on the ground to work on the commissioning protocols and other things that can ramp faster into the production and revenue operations for the satellite. So we do expect to take full advantage of that, use all the levers we've got, and meet the customer objectives. And, you know, for us, it definitely is a business case. And for the investors, it's about getting to that revenue as fast as we can. For the customers, it's about delivering world-class capacity and services for their defense and intelligence and technology and commercial needs. So we're hearing it from them at the same time we're hearing it from everybody else. Appreciate all the details. Thanks, Dan. You bet.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Robert Spinger of Credit Suisse. Your line is now open. You may ask a question.

speaker
Robert Spinger
Analyst, Credit Suisse

Hi. Good afternoon. So, Dan and or Biggs, I'm going to go back to the same question that's already been asked. I think Mike asked the question, but if the satellites take 90 days to reach proper orbit after launch, and we may not see launch until June of 22, and, you know, we might not have the first tranche up there until the end of the third, fourth quarter in 22, and unless you overlap the second tranche, then... those won't deliver or at least be ready until the middle of 23. So why not pull the guide?

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, I just want to correct a couple of misconceptions there, Rob. These are not like geoassets where they take – you have an orbit-raising event or anything like that. These are LEO assets. They will be in the correct – they'll be at orbit within a handful of minutes after we go into launch operation.

speaker
Robert Spinger
Analyst, Credit Suisse

There's no – Because I recall in the past, you know, you were going to have them up, and then it was going to take some time before they were generating revenue.

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, it does take some time before they generate revenue. That's the commissioning phase. But we don't have an additional orbit-raising phase on it like you would with a geoconstellation. So from the time when the satellite starts, you know, we go through launch, intentional ignition, X number of minutes later it starts to reach its altitude and we start to get signals and check-ins with the satellite. We then go into health and safety protocols and the commissioning operations. That's typically been between 30 and 90 days. You know, 30 is on the very low side. 90 days would be on the upper bound of that. But that's – we'll learn a lot in the first set of launches that we'll incorporate into the second set. So, you know, if you took a worst-case scenario and worst-case scenario and worst-case scenario, yeah, I'm sure you can get to the point where it makes it really challenging for 23, but we're not in any way, shape, or form in that position right now. Okay.

speaker
Robert Spinger
Analyst, Credit Suisse

Biggs, can the first two satellites deliver the $80 million in EBITDA?

speaker
Bix Porter
Chief Financial Officer

No, the first two wouldn't do that. It does take – them you know all on operation but there's a question as to as you point out what is the period of time in between the first two and the second four being launched and uh uh how quickly you know not just operations but you get customers uh lined up to uh you know to generate revenue off of them uh i you know trust me we've done modeling and there's uh there's

speaker
Robert Spinger
Analyst, Credit Suisse

number of scenarios here uh which you know i think would warrant fully are not pulling the guidance at this point in time okay um just one other thing on this dan and i'm not suggesting this is connected at all but just given the amount of space action that there is out in the market now a lot of new companies and some of them not so new but we're starting to see them grow and develop their presence. Is there a lot of talent moving around both to and from all of these companies, including Maxar? And is that disruptive in any way?

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

I think the way I'd answer that, Rob, is that we've always got a certain amount of turnover in our business with talent. And we certainly know a lot of the talent at other companies, both on the Earth intelligence side as well as other space companies. There's a lot of other non-Earth intelligence space companies that are being launched. And Maxar is known for its quality and its talent. We'll certainly have people moving around. But we've done a really good job of and being aggressive in our talent acquisition profile. We hired over 600 people during COVID. Some of them are coming to Maxar facilities, you know, for the first time now, and there's some amazing talent that's entering the building. So we're always sad when we lose great talent. We're always really excited when we bring new talent in to the organization as well. It hasn't really impacted our success. operations to date. If I could point to one area that the war for talent is really extreme on, it's software engineering talent. On the intelligence side, that's just software engineering talent across all the Bay Area and every place else that people are working with. People can't find enough software engineers these days.

speaker
Robert Spinger
Analyst, Credit Suisse

Okay. Thanks for the help.

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

You bet.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you. We have the next question come to the line of Austin Muller of Concord. Your line is now open. You may ask a question. Hi, Dan and Begg.

speaker
Austin Muller
Analyst, Concord

So just to start, I think if I heard correctly, the first telescope from Raytheon is in transit and should arrive in September is the current plan?

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

No, no, no. We're glad it doesn't take that long to get from El Segundo to Palo Alto. The first telescope is in transit, and it left this morning. I'm just looking at my watch right now, but it should be at our facilities or be there in the next, you know, 30 minutes. So I'm very much looking forward to, you know, getting out to Palo Alto and San Jose and seeing the long-awaited instrument, the first one. The second one, we're expecting right now to arrive in September. So for the two-vehicle launch, that second instrument becomes part of the gating item and the delays we've looked at as we put the overall schedule together.

speaker
Austin Muller
Analyst, Concord

Okay. And then the additional telescopes show up later in the fall, essentially?

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, you know, some of the Raytheon teams are working seven days a week and double shifts right now, you know, or two shifts a day. So, I mean, they're pouring tremendous effort into this to clear that backlog and to keep us on the best schedules they can. In anomaly, those are coming in at three- to six-month centerlines. I'm sorry, three- to six-week centerlines. I misspoke there. So, we should have all six instruments in max our facilities being integrated and then tested and going through their protocols throughout the fall.

speaker
Austin Muller
Analyst, Concord

Okay, great. And then just following the trail of red comes here. So if you're launching in March and you put the first two satellites up, then there's going to be, I guess, on average, 60 days of checkout time for those satellites to enter them into service. So best case scenario, at least for starting to generate revenue is, I guess, May of next year is the best way to think about it?

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, I think that's a fair way to think about it. Yeah, you've done the math correctly. In the best case scenario, with the guidance you've given here, that's where we'd be.

speaker
Austin Muller
Analyst, Concord

Okay, great. And then, of course, the next launch will be somewhere between three and six months after that.

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

Right, and we're doing everything under our control to keep that to the... We'll continue to refine that along the way, but to the very shorter end of that methodology there.

speaker
Austin Muller
Analyst, Concord

Okay, and then just to finalize it here, if you've got 80 million in incremental EBITDA from all six satellites essentially firing on all cylinders, should we be thinking about... Should we be thinking about you know, 20 million for each batch of satellites?

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

It's probably a little more complicated than that because it's not just a straight capacity. It'll depend on how much of that's used with different government customers, what their model is, and then how much of that's going into products like Vricon and other things that flow through faster. So, yeah. Yeah, I mean, you know, you can kind of average it out that way, but there's a lot of different access agreements and a lot of different products that feeds into to get those revenue numbers generated from the capacity on the satellites. You know, and I guess, for example, the current revenue base is, you know, existing on the four satellites we have in operation right now.

speaker
Austin Muller
Analyst, Concord

Okay, yeah, that makes sense. Thanks for the additional color.

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, sure thing, Austin.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Chris Quilty of Quilty Analytics. Your line is now open. You may ask a question.

speaker
Chris Quilty
Analyst, Quilty Analytics

Thanks. I wanted to do a follow-up on the large book and ship that you booked in the quarter. I mean, I've been following the company for about 10 years, and I don't recall any single big order hitting like that. Was there something particular either in the lifting of COVID restrictions or new products that you offered or budget cycle that you'd attribute that to? Or, you know, is that maybe just the early wave of what could be follow-on business at the same level?

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, I think the way I talk about that, Chris, is I know you've been following the company for a long time, but I think probably one thing you've noticed is how much better some of our products have gotten, you know, like our base map, our subscription products, our integrated products. full-on world-level systems, and then beyond that now the 3D products. And so what we saw in this quarter, we really saw some traction with the 3D capabilities tied to the other things that we offer in the data set. And probably the best way to explain that is people see some of the work we're doing with Project MAVEN and with the One World Terrain simulations and sensor-to-shooter and sensor-to-decision timelines. They're realizing the value of the 3D point cloud data registration, how effective that data can be for training and simulation environments. And that's what drove a lot of the upside in the second quarter here.

speaker
Chris Quilty
Analyst, Quilty Analytics

Gotcha. And I know you don't break out Vricon separately, but can you talk about the rate of growth within that business relative to when you fully acquired it? and whether you're just seeing a continuation of programs, you know, take the one world thing out. Are there any specific actions you've been able to take to land new customers or expand the product portfolio?

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, there are two very definitive things we've done. One is, as we've shown this, you know, not just shown it, but done the sales process and the full-on, testing with international defense and intelligence customers, and as they cycle back through with their U.S. ally here, they're understanding the value of the data and the technology, and that's contributed to the sales cycle and some of the wins we've seen. The second thing we've done, and we announced this, I think, last quarter, the quarter before, but we've secured all of the commercial rights to the 3D sales as well. So we're seeing really good pipeline opportunities on the commercial side as we've now got full licenseability of the 3D datasets, the 3D technology, and the data point cloud registration 3D datasets that we've got there. So those are the two things that are really contributing to where we're performing now as well as to what we see as the good growth prospects driving forward.

speaker
Chris Quilty
Analyst, Quilty Analytics

Great. And final question on the launch. You're still going with a dedicated Falcon 9, right?

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

Yes, dedicated Falcon 9. We've procured two launches from SpaceX. A little unusual compared to what we've done in the past. We've typically launched out of Vandenberg before. the SunSync missions, but we're going to do both of these out of the Cape. It's easier. We don't have to get teams back and forth. We can do all the testing and integration at the one launch facility. SpaceX has two launch pads there. And there's plenty of horsepower on a Falcon 9 to get the satellites to the right spots.

speaker
Chris Quilty
Analyst, Quilty Analytics

Well, my question, I guess, is going to be, you know, the March to June timeframe, is that an assumption that, well, we think we're going to deliver in March, but we don't know whether, you know, we'll get a launch availability until June, or... Do you feel like, given the DX rating on this program, that SpaceX is going to move things around to get you launched as soon as possible?

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

Well, I'm glad you point out that we do have a DX rating. That's been very helpful along the way here. And I think, you know, proof point positive about the importance of some of these assets. We've been in discussions with SpaceX. We've talked to them about the parameters we're working with, what our schedule looks like, and without even having to talk about the DX rating, they've been very amenable to working with us on the launch schedule for this.

speaker
Chris Quilty
Analyst, Quilty Analytics

Great. Looking forward to it.

speaker
Dan Jablonski
Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Chris. We'll look forward to seeing you down there. Yeah, absolutely. And thank you, Operator. We've gone over the 60 minutes that we set to try to complete the call. And I want to thank everybody for joining us today. We look forward to seeing all of you virtually at some of the upcoming conferences and reconnecting on our third quarter call later in the year. That's it for now, Operator. We can conclude the call.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you so much presenters. That concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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