From natural disasters and humanitarian crises to advances in space exploration, 2024 brought a series of impactful events around the world.
As the year draws to a close, satellite images from Maxar Technologies have captured many of those defining moments—from the collapse of a Maryland bridge to the launch of groundbreaking rockets—offering a bird's-eye perspective of a world in motion.
In March, the Dali container ship collided with a key support column of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, leading to a devastating collapse of the bridge's span.
The disaster claimed six lives and blocked vital shipping lanes at the Port of Baltimore for nearly two months, with economic losses initially estimated at $15 million per day.
The Dali has since been removed, and plans are underway to rebuild the Key Bridge after federal funds were approved as part of the end-of-year spending deal in Congress.
In May, Maxar pointed its first two WorldView Legion satellites at a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch. High-resolution images captured just before liftoff showed the rocket at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
In June, Boeing's Starliner spacecraft achieved a major milestone by docking with the International Space Station (ISS) during its first crewed mission. That was the good news.