With efforts to increase the use of commercial satellite imagery by U.S. government civil agencies moving slowly, the U.S. military has now taken the lead.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) awarded contracts in June 2004 to Space Imaging, Orbimage Inc. and Digitalglobe to provide imagery to the non- military agencies in the U.S. federal government. All three companies operate satellites capable of taking black-and-white images with roughly 1-meter resolution.

A survey conducted by the USGS of U.S. civilian federal agencies found that more than 80 percent had clear requirements for commercial satellite imagery and the contracts were designed to increase use of the data by allowing the agencies to combine their purchasing power. But the contracts, which did not include guaranteed funding, have not had the desired impact on the civil agencies or produced much business for the companies, officials said.

To date, about six agencies have taken advantage of the contract, spending less than $1.3 million on commercial imagery, said Greg Snyder, manager of the commercial remote sensing program office at USGS headquarters in Reston, Va.

Tom Cecere, a cartographer with USGS who is helping lead the implementation of the Commercial Remote Sensing Space Policy, said government budget pressures have hampered spending on commercial satellite imagery.

“We were hoping for more, but I think it’s just been because of the downsizing of government agencies and dollars getting harder and harder to justify,” Cecere said. “When you are trying to fight for people’s salaries, it’s been a little harder to have agencies try something deemed as new technology.”

The civil agency contract vehicle was set up in response to the April 2003 Commercial Remote Sensing Policy, which directs all U.S. federal agencies to look to the private sector to meet their satellite imagery needs. The USGS, part of the U.S. Department of Interior, along with the Department of Commerce and NASA led the implementation on the civil side, while the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) led efforts for the military and intelligence agencies.

In January 2003, the NGA awarded the three U.S.-based remote sensing satellite operators contracts to provide imagery under the Clearview program. The base contracts run through 2007, with a total spending ceiling of $500 million.

NGA Takes Over

Under the reorganization of the civil agency effort, the NGA will take over leadership of the commercial satellite imagery efforts for the entire federal government, allowing the civil agencies wider access to the imagery archive built up by the U.S. military, officials said.

“There was a recognition, particularly in the White House, that NGA commercial satellite imagery purchases are several orders of magnitude greater than civil purchases combined,” Snyder said. “It’s just logical that civil agencies try to leverage that infrastructure as much as possible.”

The new model, which began in May, features a senior management oversight committee chaired by Doug McGovern, head of the NGA’s commercial imagery office. The committee oversees three groups – a shared execution team charged with integrating the infrastructure, contracts and data requirements of the civil agencies with the NGA and a near-term and long-term requirements group.

“What we are trying to do is balance off what we already have collected and see if their requirements can check against our advanced planning,” McGovern said. “There may be better opportunities to satisfy civil agency needs. If I can’t satisfy their needs with our purchases, they can buy imagery through Clearview.

The shared execution committee includes representatives from the NGA, the USGS, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Homeland Security. The USGS leads the near-term requirements activity, while NOAA will helm the effort to define long-term requirements.

“I think this change was less about data sales and more about looking back to what is good governance,” Snyder said. “The NGA obviously has been robustly funded, for the Clearview and Nextview contracts, and there is a feeling that civil agencies are not taking full advantage of that. This model reflects what we think we can improve.”

The civil agencies will not be able to tap into NGA’s budget to buy new imagery, officials said, but they will have full access to the NGA’s archive and the military agency will try to take into account civil requirements when tasking the commercial satellites.

“This is not interfering with anything being done for military and intelligence users,” McGovern said. “Clearly they take priority. If the civil agencies have requirements that don’t rack and stack with our priorities, they can send us money and we can execute a collection on their behalf.”

The agencies are developing a new Internet site that will allow qualified users to search the NGA archive as well as submit requirements for new collections, officials said.

The civil agencies also are talking with the satellite operators to address company concerns about the lack of progress on the civil agency side, Cecere said. “We know they’ve been a little unhappy with the amount of business coming their way,” he said. “It comes down to education and marketing as always. They need to keep marketing and showing the value of the tools, because a lot of agencies don’t want to take the risk of buying imagery on speculation.”

–Jason Bates