Imagery and Sensing

BlackSky, the geospatial intelligence service of Spaceflight Industries, announced the first of its next generation of small Earth Observation (EO) satellites is complete, qualified, and awaiting launch. This spacecraft, called Global 1, is the first of four smallsats that are scheduled to launch in the next year on both U.S. and foreign launch vehicles. The...

NASA and United Launch Alliance (ULA) successfully launched the second in a series of next-generation weather satellites this week for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). At 5:02 p.m. EST Thursday, NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-S (GOES S) lifted off on an Atlas 5 rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air...

On Feb. 28, Japan successfully launched a new optical reconnaissance satellite from Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture. The spacecraft (the details of which are highly classified) will join a fleet of what will eventually be a 10-satellite system capable of photographing any spot on Earth multiple times a day. The main role of the...

Radiant Solutions announced a contract with the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to provide more than 1 million labeled objects within high-resolution satellite images that will be used to accelerate the development of machine learning algorithms that can extract valuable information from imagery at scale. NGA is partnering with Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx) to...

MDA announced that it has signed a contract valued at approximately CA$4 million ($3.1 million) with Airbus for design studies dedicated to the optical data relay payload of the third SpaceDataHighway satellite. During this phase, MDA will define the preliminary design of the European Data Relay Satellite System-D (EDRS-D) optical data relay payload. MDA will...

A unit in the Pentagon has put out a call for algorithms that can be used to analyze high-resolution satellite imagery. The contest, called the xView Detection Challenge, will award $100,000 to entrants who can develop more efficient ways to interpret geospatial data. Read more at Wired >>

First two Starlink demo satellites, called Tintin A & B, deployed and communicating to Earth stations pic.twitter.com/TfI53wHEtz — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 22, 2018 SpaceX completed its third successful launch of 2018 this morning, orbiting the first two test satellites — Tintin A and B — for its Starlink broadband constellation, as well as a...

Orbital Insight announced it has opened a new sales office in Tokyo, Japan. The office will meet the growing demand for Orbital Insight’s products and services throughout the Asia-Pacific region, the company stated. According to Orbital Insight, Tokyo is a strategic choice for the company because of its role in global innovation. Asia-Pacific customers have...