The five Strategic Commercial Enhancements (SCE) contracts will allow NRO to study imagery and techniques used by the companies, which include novel ways of processing images to increase their fidelity and resolution.
By Theresa HitchensWhen it comes to leveraging commercial space tech, one analyst said, “The old adage holds — show me your budget and I’ll show you your priorities.”
By Theresa HitchensUnder the deal, Maxar will be able to expand its SAR data offerings to international customers, and Umbra will get global eyes on its products, company officials told Breaking Defense.
By Theresa Hitchens“We’re talking to a lot of different organizations in the government — Space Force, the Army, the Air Force — many that are looking at how you could leverage commercial technologies and tactical ISR,” BlackSky CEO Brian O’Toole told Breaking Defense.
By Theresa HitchensPayam Banazadeh, CEO of Capella Space, told Breaking Defense that the Ukraine war has been a “critical place for the industry to show itself,” but NRO says it isn’t accelerating the SAR acquisition process.
By Theresa HitchensPete Muend, director of the NRO Commercial Systems Program Office, told the USGIF GEOINT 2022 conference that RF tracking for Ukraine has been “great benefit,” and spy agency wants to expand the capability.
By Theresa HitchensLater in the contracting process, NRO potentially will “have the wherewithal to purchase ad hoc imagery, data products and the like,” said Pete Muend, director of the spy agency’s Commercial Systems Program Office.
By Theresa HitchensPlanet is hopeful that NRO not only will be interested in its current 50cm resolution SkySat constellation, but also its newest constellation, called Pelican, which will be operational in 2023, said co-founder Robbie Shingler.
By Theresa Hitchens“LiDAR is a really neat technology, and we’ve got to take advantage of it,” NRO Director Chris Scolese said.
By Theresa HitchensThe new policy is inconsistent with efforts by DoD and NGA to expand the trusted supplier base by better integrating allied firms into their acquisition chains, critics say.
By Theresa Hitchens“Comms, data relay, remote sensing, and even ISR and some other things — [these] capabilities are increasingly available in the commercial market,” Space Force deputy Lt. Gen. DT Thompson said today.
By Theresa Hitchens“NGA expects unclassified space-based geospatial data to become ubiquitous and widely available,” says NGA’s David Gauthier.
By Theresa HitchensCOLORADO SPRINGS: The intelligence community is on the verge of “revolutionary” technical advances. Spy satellites and other systems will be able to watch a place or a person for long periods of time and warn intelligence analysts and operatives when target changes its behavior. Satellites and their sensors could be redirected automatically to ensure nothing is missed. “We will…
By Colin ClarkWASHINGTON: In the next few weeks an unlikely government agency known more for weather than regulating satellites, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA), may decide the international future of America’s commercial satellite imagery industry, dominated now by DigitalGlobe. NOAA licenses American commercial remote sensing satellites, which includes DigitalGlobe’s five satellites currently in orbit. One…
By Colin Clark