Summary points:
- BlackSky Technology Inc. in Herndon, Va., signed a Gen-2 expansion contract with HEO to deliver fully automated non-Earth imaging (NEI) services for defense, intelligence, and commercial use.
- HEO’s software platform will autonomously task BlackSky’s high-cadence satellites in mid-inclination orbit to detect, track, and characterize on-orbit objects, supporting space domain awareness applications such as constellation monitoring and anomaly detection.
- Customers can request NEI products through HEO’s automated HEO Inspect platform, where BlackSky’s NEI data is processed into analytics reports detailing satellite attitude, subsystems, location, and pattern-of-life analyses.
HERNDON, Va. - BlackSky Technology Inc. in Herndon, Va., has signed a Gen-2 space domain awareness expansion contract with HEO in Sydney, Australia, to provide fully automated, low-latency non-Earth imaging (NEI) services for defense, intelligence, and commercial customers. The contract has now entered its fourth phase after completing automation of the tasking-to-delivery process.
"BlackSky’s high-resolution Gen-2 high-cadence monitoring constellation continues to contribute valuable insight for space domain awareness," said Brian O’Toole, BlackSky CEO. "As on-orbit activities continue to increase, global monitoring efforts are expanding beyond terrestrial intelligence to include space intelligence. Automatically tasking and receiving NEI products reflects yet another pioneering innovation that gives customers reliable and actionable insight about spacecraft or on-orbit objects of interest at mission speed."
Under the agreement, HEO’s software platform will autonomously identify imaging opportunities and direct BlackSky’s Gen-2 satellites to detect, track, characterize, and classify objects in orbit. The system also supports threat assessment and prediction. BlackSky’s imaging satellites operate in mid-inclination orbit, which increases the feasibility of capturing NEI data across middle latitudes at specific times and locations. The rapid tasking and delivery process supports applications such as constellation monitoring and anomaly detection.
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“BlackSky has the ability to leverage remaining capacity typically associated with satellites passing over the ocean or satellites in eclipse, traveling across the dark side of Earth,” O’Toole said. “Customers can now use that excess capacity, with a high-quality user experience, to monitor objects in space with no humans in the loop.”
Dr. Will Crowe, co-founder and CEO of HEO, said, “Achieving true space awareness is going to require levels of inspection platforms across orbits, ready to capture imagery at a moment’s notice, and HEO is building exactly that. BlackSky’s high-resolution satellites and automated capacity give us eyes in mid-inclination orbit, turning downtime into an intelligence goldmine for operators who need to know what’s happening around their assets, when it happens.”
HEO integrated BlackSky’s constellation into its NEI sensor network in 2024. Customers can now request NEI products through HEO’s automated platform, HEO Inspect. Once collected, BlackSky’s NEI data and metadata are transferred into HEO Inspect, where object detection and identification algorithms generate analytics reports that can include a satellite’s attitude, subsystems, location, and pattern-of-life analysis.
