BlackSky Technology on Tuesday said the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) awarded the company a contract modification to speed development of its AROS multi-spectral, broad area Earth observation satellites that will be a commercial alternative to current foundation imagery suppliers.
The NRO told Defense Daily that the “8-figure” modification brings the total contract value to over $150 million.
The additional funding creates a “direct path toward a flight ready multi-spectral, large-area mapping spacecraft and foundation data collection system in 2028,” BlackSky said.
BlackSky in June 2025 disclosed the development of AROS was underway, saying then the new constellation would be for broad area search, change monitoring and refresh of large area and 3D mapping datasets. At the time, the company said AROS could launch as early as 2027.
In 2025, the Northern Virginia-based company began launching its newest constellation, the Gen-3 electro-optical Earth imaging satellites. AROS and Gen-3 will be complementary, with the former designed to tip and cue Gen-3 spacecraft for “combined broad area and point monitoring at scale,” the company said.
“Developing BlackSky’s AROS constellation in partnership with the U.S. government cements a major step in securing U.S. global space competitiveness, resilience and maintaining critical operational continuity as commercially available foundation data becomes capacity-constrained in the coming years,” Brian O’Toole, the company’s CEO, said in a statement. “BlackSky will design, develop and field the next generation of high-performance, AI-ready geospatial foundation data satellites, leveraging the proven heritage and reliability of our advanced Gen-3 architecture and vertically integrated agile manufacturing infrastructure.”
