Rendering of a BlackSky satellite. Photo: BlackSky

NASA placed a $1.7 million call order with BlackSky to evaluate the company’s imaging data services for Earth science research. The call order was issued under a five-year Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition Program, purchase agreement announced in November 2021.

The order gives NASA-funded investigators on-demand access to BlackSky’s imagery and Spectra AI tasking and analytics platform, BlackSky said. 

“New discoveries in Earth science can be accelerated with innovative research methods and real-time dynamic data sets that keep up with the increasingly rapid pace and scale of change on our planet,” said Dr. Patrick O’Neil, BlackSky chief innovation officer.