Umbra, Capella House and GHGSat are among the many seven corporations that may present NASA with business satellite tv for pc imagery, a part of an acquisition program that has a most potential worth of $476 million throughout all suppliers. The contract length is 5 years, with an choice to increase it by six months.
Maxar’s intelligence division, PlanetiQ, Spire, and Airbus Defence and House subsidiary Airbus DS GEO had been additionally chosen for the five-year contract. The brand new awards are beneath the aegis of NASA’s Business Smallsat Knowledge Acquisition Program, which was established by the company’s Earth Science Division to amass distant sensing imagery from business suppliers to assist Earth science analysis.
“This contract will present an economical means to enhance the suite of Earth observations acquired by NASA and different U.S. authorities businesses, in addition to worldwide companions and businesses,” the company stated in an announcement. “An emphasis will likely be positioned on information acquired by business satellite tv for pc constellations, affording the technique of complementing NASA’s Earth observations information with greater resolutions, elevated temporal frequency or different novel capabilities.”
NASA initiated the acquisition program in 2017, when it awarded contracts to Planet, Maxar and Spire. Beneath this system, scientists can use the business datasets acquired by NASA for his or her analysis, as long as they adhere to corporations’ phrases and circumstances. The company additionally requires finish consumer license agreements to extra simply disseminate the info with its companions.
It’s a part of a broader effort throughout NASA to solicit and assist business companies growing applied sciences it may then buy as a buyer. One other instance is the company’s Enterprise-Class Acquisition of Devoted and Rideshare program, which allows suppliers to promote launch companies to NASA for its science and expertise missions.