BlackSky Technology was awarded a multi-year, sole-source $99 million U.S. government IDIQ contract for advanced, next-generation capabilities. The company received an initial $2 million to accelerate the design of an advanced large-aperture optical payload for Earth observation and space domain awareness platforms.
“This award validates and leverages our investments in leap-ahead space technologies that feature next-generation space architectures as part of our long-term constellation roadmap,” said Brian O’Toole, BlackSky CEO. “With U.S. government collaboration, we can accelerate these critical technologies as part of a multi-year advanced technology development program. In order to demonstrate the scale and impact of these new technologies, we’ll be focused on quickly fielding advanced systems that combine future-generation payloads with an evolution of our proven Gen-3 space architecture.”
This AFRL contract serves to develop additional commercial space-based intelligence capabilities and mission applications distinct from those addressed by current Gen-2 and Gen-3 monitoring systems and the company’s future AROS broad area search system. The contract is expected to advance innovations for optical imaging and overall platform-level utility and support more novel applications in high-cadence Earth monitoring and observing objects in low Earth, geostationary and cis-lunar orbits.
“We will leverage the unique, highly scalable core technology of Gen-3 into every incremental advancement along our roadmap, looking at the AROS broad area search system as the next step into the more expansive very large-aperture optical imagery capabilities covered by this contract. These advancements will enable very high-resolution imaging and collection performance combined with low-latency space-based communications,” said O’Toole.
The satellites developed under this contract are expected to operate as both a data storage and processing hub and be compatible with on-orbit data centers in space, i.e. a ubiquitous AI-enabled communications environment. Satellites developed under this effort are also expected to integrate with current and future launch vehicles.
From the establishment of our foundational Gen-2 capabilities through the evolution of Gen-3 and future AROS systems, BlackSky has strategically developed and deployed a unique mission-oriented AI-enabled architecture purpose-built to meet current and future demands for dynamic, real-time monitoring. With speed as a focal point across our entire enterprise, this critical software-oriented architecture, brought together with our vertically integrated advanced satellite manufacturing capabilities, has informed our ability to rapidly place on-orbit the world’s most advanced space-based intelligence system.
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