NRO announces commercial contracts for space-based hyperspectral imagery

The six companies receiving awards are BlackSky Technology, HyperSat, Orbital Sidekick, Pixxel, Planet and Xplore.

Capabilities

The contracts, say the NRO, focus on “increasing knowledge and understanding of current and expected hyperspectral imagery availability, quality, and operational utility” and they have two stages.

The first focuses on analytical studies to provide estimates of system capabilities at both the individual sensor and constellation levels, as well as business and cybersecurity planning.

The second stage focuses on assessing on-orbit capabilities and procuring data products.

“We are operating the largest, most diverse, most capable overhead constellation in NRO’s history as we face increasingly complex threats in space and on the ground,” said NRO Director Dr. Chris Scolese.

“Through these newest contracts, we are very excited to explore the potential of commercial hyperspectral imagery and what it may be able to contribute to our world-class intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities.”

Hyperspectral imagery

Hyperspectral images, which are made up of light from hundreds of colors across the electromagnetic spectrum, mean that any given object will have a unique signature.

The NRO highlights that this enables users to obtain information about each pixel in an image, with the goal of identifying objects and materials. Applications include agriculture, mining, geology and intelligence and surveillance.

RF Sensing

These awards follow six BAA contracts from the NRO for commercial radio frequency remote sensing, which were awarded in September 2022, and five commercial radar BAA contracts in January 2022.

See also: Airbus, Iceye to provide radar satellite data to U.S. government

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