SSL MDA Holdings

Space Systems Loral (SSL) was a Palo Alto, California GEO satellite manufacturer founded in 1957 that became one of the most prolific commercial communications satellite builders in history — delivering over 100 geostationary satellites to operators worldwide across six decades. The company's lineage traces through Ford Aerospace, Loral Telecommunications, and Loral Space & Communications before being acquired by MDA Corporation (Canada) in 2012 for approximately $875 million.

SSL's flagship product was the SSL-1300 satellite bus: a flexible, high-power GEO communications platform offering 4-17 kW of payload power, 4-7 tonne launch mass, and 15-year design life — attractive for large telecommunications satellites and very high throughput (VHTS) broadband missions. The bus powered landmark satellites including ViaSat-1 (launched 2011, then the world's highest-capacity communications satellite at 140 Gbps), ViaSat-2, ViaSat-3, the Jupiter-2 and Jupiter-3 satellites for Hughes Network Systems, SiriusXM's satellite radio constellation, and numerous GEO communications satellites for international operators across Asia, Middle East, and Latin America. Smaller platforms (SSL-702, SSL-900) served medium-capacity regional operators.

Maxar Technologies was formed in 2017 when MDA merged SSL with DigitalGlobe (WorldView high-resolution EO satellites), Radiant Solutions (geospatial intelligence analytics), and Vricon (3D terrain modeling). Under Maxar, SSL continued as the satellite manufacturing division — building the WorldView Legion high-resolution imaging constellation and Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) military communications satellites alongside commercial GEO work. Maxar Technologies was acquired by Advent International in 2023 for approximately $6.4 billion following financial difficulties. Maxar's satellite manufacturing business was subsequently sold back to MDA Ltd (TSX: MDA), the publicly listed Canadian space company, in 2023 — effectively returning the SSL heritage satellite manufacturing operation to Canadian ownership where it had been from 2012-2017, while DigitalGlobe's imagery assets remained with the Advent-owned Maxar entity. The Palo Alto manufacturing facility continues operations building GEO satellites on SSL-heritage bus platforms.