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Capella Space Becomes First Commercial SAR Provider to Work With NRO

By Rachel Jewett | December 12, 2019
      An artist rendition of a Capella SAR satellite. Photo: Capella

      An artist rendition of a Capella SAR satellite. Photo: Capella

      Capella Space, which provides Earth observation imagery, has signed a contract with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), to study the integration of its Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery into the NRO’s national ground architecture. Capella is the first U.S. commercial SAR provider to work with the NRO to explore opportunities to integrate commercial SAR to support the NRO.

      The NRO will use this study contract to explore how best to integrate commercial SAR into the enterprise architecture. Study findings will help to inform potential architecture modifications and better enable the NRO to leverage multiple, diverse phenomenologies. 

      “The NRO’s interest in Capella comes on the heels of other recent agreements between Capella and other governments and global businesses, affirming interest and creating strong momentum in Capella’s SAR data service,” said Dan Brophy, vice president of government services at Capella Space. 

      Capella also recently announced an exclusive agreement with Inmarsat to task any satellite in its constellation in any location in the world in real time. Also, in November, the company was awarded a contract with the U.S. Air Force to apply SAR data to the military branch’s virtual reality software.