Orbital Insight car detection data of Shanghai, China. Photo: Airbus

Orbital Insight has been tentatively awarded a contract with the U.S. Air Force (USAF) to help detect anomalies around the world using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and geospatial data. 

The contract, which an Orbital Insight representative said on April 17 is still under final negotiations, is with USAF’s AFVentures Strategic Financing (STRATFI). The program is a joint endeavor between the service’s Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) Programs, USAF’s in-house innovation incubator AFWERX, and Air Force Acquisitions. Approximately $550 million will be given in contracts to 21 small businesses, including Orbital Insight, as part of Phase II’s four-year, fixed-price contracts. Orbital Insight has previously collaborated with AFWERX in two previous SBIR phases.

 [Orbital Insight GO was among the nominees for Satellite Technology of the Year] 

Orbital Insight’s GO platform, which was introduced in 2019, provies analytics powered by AI and multiple geospatial data sources such as satellite imagery, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), Automatic Identification System (AIS), and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. The platform was built to deliver insights for the Department of Defense (DoD) and intelligence community. 

“Entire job functions are dedicated to monitoring satellite imagery and other data sources, but the volume of data is too massive to access and analyze at scale—and our national security depends on those answers,” said James Crawford, Orbital Insight CEO and founder. “We’re honored to continue our partnership with the U.S. Air Force and empower them with machine learning to zoom in on the physical world, reveal hidden changes faster and proactively inform warfighter decisions.”