{"id":18033,"date":"2019-06-03T23:17:59","date_gmt":"2019-06-03T15:17:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/blacksky-revs-up-satellite-operations-and-teams-up-with-hawkeye-360-and-nro\/"},"modified":"2019-06-03T23:17:59","modified_gmt":"2019-06-03T15:17:59","slug":"blacksky-revs-up-satellite-operations-and-teams-up-with-hawkeye-360-and-nro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/blacksky-revs-up-satellite-operations-and-teams-up-with-hawkeye-360-and-nro\/","title":{"rendered":"BlackSky revs up satellite operations and teams up with HawkEye 360 and NRO"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_402274\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-402274\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-402274\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/180305-satellites-630x468.jpeg\" alt=\"BlackSky Global satellites\" width=\"630\" height=\"468\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/180305-satellites-630x468.jpeg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/180305-satellites-768x570.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/180305-satellites-1260x935.jpeg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/180305-satellites.jpeg 1617w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-402274\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist\u2019s conception shows BlackSky\u2019s Global satellites in orbit. (BlackSky Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Seattle-based BlackSky is ramping up commercial operations of its satellite-based geospatial intelligence platform, thanks to newly announced deals with the National Reconnaissance Office and HawkEye 360, a company that has its own radio-sensing satellites in orbit.<\/p>\n<p>Both deals were announced today in conjunction with the GEOINT Symposium in San Antonio.<\/p>\n<p>One agreement opens the way for BlackSky to make use of the signal-detection data provided by Virginia-based HawkEye 360\u2019s formation-flying satellite constellation in its own web-based analytical services. The radio-frequency data will supplement readings in other wavelengths beamed down from BlackSky\u2019s own Global constellation for Earth observation as well as a wide range of other satellites.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a very unique offering that provides key markets such as defense, maritime and emergency response, with a new layer of high-impact geospatial intelligence,\u201d BlackSky CEO Brian O\u2019Toole said in a news release. \u201cBeing able to access and visualize this data, fuse it with other data sets, and analyze it within one platform is incredibly valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Chris DeMay, founder and chief technology officer of HawkEye 360, said the combined data set will come in particularly handy to trace activity such as illegal fishing, violations of trade sanctions and human trafficking.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy integrating HawkEye 360\u2019s RF data into the <span class=\"il\">BlackSky<\/span>&nbsp;platform, users can geolocate ships who have attempted to \u2018go dark\u2019 and tip-and-cue&nbsp;<span class=\"il\">BlackSky<\/span> satellites for additional evidence of the illicit activity,\u201d he said. \u201cHawkEye is excited to partner with <span class=\"il\">BlackSky<\/span>&nbsp;to provide time-dominant, multi-intelligence global awareness services.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Black Sky: Advancing the Geospatial Revolution with Cloud-First Approach\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rUtDEgkf53I?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s other deal highlights the potential applications for integrated geospatial intelligence: BlackSky announced that it has been awarded an NRO study contract to provide commercial satellite imagery.<\/p>\n<p>The announcement didn\u2019t provide details about the scope or the size of the award, except to note that the NRO provides commercial imagery to the defense and intelligence community to support homeland defense, national security, disaster relief and emergency response missions.<\/p>\n<p>Maxar Technologies and Planet also received commercial imagery study contracts, the NRO said in a news release. The contracts will be used to assess the providers\u2019 performance capabilities and validate their ability to satisfy U.S. government requirements into the 2023 time frame. The NRO said it expects to start a new round of commercial imagery procurements in late 2020.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor close to a decade, Maxar (DigitalGlobe) has supported our national security mission,\u201d said Troy Meink, director of the NRO\u2019s Geospatial Intelligence Directorate. \u201cAnd now we are pleased to expand our commercial partnerships with the addition of BlackSky Global and Planet, both of which offer exciting new capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a separate news release, BlackSky\u2019s O\u2019Toole said being selected by the NRO \u201cvalidates how BlackSky has quickly become a trusted partner of providing mission-critical global intelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re combining high-revisit satellite imaging with a unique analytic solution for site monitoring, all at a price point not seen before with traditional providers,\u201d O\u2019Toole said. \u201cWe look forward to building a long-term partnership with the NRO and continuing our support of the U.S. government\u2019s existing and emerging security and intelligence needs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>BlackSky, a subsidiary of Seattle\u2019s Spaceflight Industries, says it officially began commercial operations in early May after completing several significant on-orbit milestones for its first two Earth-imaging spacecraft, Global-1 and Global-2. The company is due to launch Global-3 and Global-4 in the coming months, and plans to launch four more satellites later this year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow that we have fully integrated our constellation with our global intelligence platform and ground station network, we are delivering mission-critical imaging and analytic solutions to our customers,\u201d O\u2019Toole said.<\/p>\n<p>With eight satellites, BlackSky expects to deliver imagery from more than five revisits per day over many sites of interest. BlackSky plans to have more than 16 Global satellites in orbit by the end of next year, which should double the revisit rate and provide time-sensitive satellite data with low latency.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Update for 7:50 a.m. PT June 4:<\/strong> We\u2019ve updated this report with additional information from the NRO.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An artist\u2019s conception shows BlackSky\u2019s Global satellites in orbit. (BlackSky Illustration) Seattle-based BlackSky is ramping up commercial operations of its satellite-based geospatial intelligence platform, thanks to newly announced deals with the National Reconnaissance Office and HawkEye 360, a company that has its own radio-sensing satellites in orbit. Both deals were announced today in conjunction with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2128,4782,290,20,442,2341],"class_list":["post-18033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blacksky-global","tag-hawkeye-360","tag-nro","tag-satellite","tag-satellites","tag-spaceflight-industries"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18033"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18033\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}