BlackSky Technology Inc. (NYSE: BKSY) has won a seven figure contract to deliver non-Earth Imaging (NEI) services to support the customer’s Space Domain Awareness (SDA) capabilities — as part of the contract, BlackSky will integrate Gen-2 satellite imagery of on-orbit spacecraft into the customer’s collection of SDA assets.
Space Situational Awareness (SSA) is vital for identifying, characterizing, and tracking space objects and their operational environment. SSA data is critical for maintaining space safety and facilitating real-time space traffic coordination. The data is used to help space operators predict and avoid collisions between objects or avoid debris from fragmentation events, meteor storms, or other natural events that might also affect operations.
SSA is foundational to all space safety and real time space traffic coordination activities and is a critical component of SDA, which is the ability of decision makers to understand, as completely as necessary, their current and predicted operational environments.
Delivering NEI capabilities gives BlackSky the ability to leverage underutilized capacity typically associated with satellites passing over the ocean or satellites in eclipse, traveling across the dark side of Earth. This enhances BlackSky’s service offering and supports mission success across the realm of space security.
“BlackSky’s expansion into SDA unlocks additional value from our current high-resolution Gen-2 constellation and immediately meets our customer’s demand for NEI solutions,” said Brian O’Toole, BlackSky CEO. “Our continued momentum in the NEI space demonstrates technical agility and a strategic commitment to innovation that provides reliable, practical value to Space Situational Awareness operations.”