A BlackSky Gen-2 satellite captured this image of China’s Tiangong space station in space at a distance of 83 kilometers in March 2025. Photo: BlackSky

BlackSky Technology on Tuesday said a $99 million contract it received from the Air Force Research Laboratory in early March that will accelerate the design and development of a large aperture optical payload that could be used for space-based Earth imaging and space domain awareness.

An initial $2.1 million obligation using fiscal year 2026 research and development funds from AFRL is to accelerate design of the payload.

“This contract provides for the development of a low-cost, precision, large aperture optical imaging system testbed using segmented primary mirror, precision laser metrology and mirror positioning, and large format focal plane arrays,” the Air Force said when the award was made.

The Small Business Innovation Research Phase III contract runs through March 6, 2032.

BlackSky said the new contract is separate from the capabilities and applications performed by the company’s current Gen-2 and Gen-3 electro-optical Earth imaging satellites and the planned AROS broad area search spacecraft.

“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,” Brian O’Toole, CEO of BlackSky, said in a statement. “These advancements will enable very high-resolution imaging and collection performance combined with low latency space-based communications.”

BlackSky also said that the satellites developed under the AFRL award will operate as data storage and processing hub and be compatible with on-orbit data centers.

This story was first published by Defense Daily